LIFE  IN  THE 
SHADOW  OF  DEATH 


REV.  ANDREW  KLARMANN,  A.M. 


ART   AND    PURPOSE    OF 
LIVING 


BY 
^ilitrmrttm,  ^.^1. 

Author  of  "  The  Princess  of  Gan-Sar,"  "  The  Trial  of  Jesus  Christ 

Before  Pilate,"  "  The  Crux  of  Pastoral  Medicine," 

"  Felix  Aeternus,"  "  Nizra,"  etc. 


r 


Printers  to  The  Holy  Apostolic  See  and  The  Sacred 
Congregation  of  Rites 

RATISBON      ROME      NEW  YORK      CINCINNATI 
1910 


THOMAS  B.  COTTER,  PH.D. 

Censor. 


fcJOHN  M.  FARLEY, 

Archbishop  of  New  York. 


NEW  YORK,  AUG.  22,  igio 


io^it,  1010 

FR.  PUSTET   &    CO. 
NEW  YORK  AND  CINCINNATI 


In  order  to  live  properly  it  is  necessary  that 
we  have  the  proper  view  of  life.  In  these 
pages  the  author  endeavors  to  set  before  the 
busy  man  a  few  considerations  of  the  twofold 
manifestation  of  human  life,  that  is,  of  its 
development  and  its  decline.  But  since  human 
life  passes  for  one  brief  moment  between  time 
and  eternity,  as  the  moon  in  a  solar  eclipse 
passes  between  the  earth  and  the  sun,  and 
emerges  from  the  momentary  obscuration  of 
death  into  the  splendor  of  a  new  life,  it  is 
meet  to  study  human  life  in  its  eclipse,  death, 
particularly  because  death  is  the  key  to  the 
mystery  of  life,  without  which  neither  its 
purpose  nor  its  operation  can  be  fully  dis- 
closed and  closely  inspected. 

As  the  moon  obscures  for  a  little  while  the 
light  of  the  heavens  from  the  earth,  so  death 
eclipses  life  and  its  hopes  for  a  moment,  only 
to  reveal  it  in  the  newness  of  a  nobler  life,  the 
end  and  aim  of  earthly  life.  Eclipses  are 
mysteries  to  the  rude  tribes  of  the  South  Sea 

[5] 


islands  —  and  death  has  so  much  become  a 
mystery  to  the  children  of  civilization  and 
culture,  that  its  very  contemplation  fills  them 
with  horror,  as  the  passing  of  a  specter  in 
the  night,  and  its  meaning  is  made  a  mad 
superstition.  Yet  the  contemplation  of  life 
in  the  shadow  of  death  is  necessary  for  the  under- 
standing and  ordering  of  the  short  span  of 
time  and  slim  impulse  of  energy  accorded  to 
man  in  this  world.  It  is  an  improvident 
traveler  who  does  not  prepare  for  the  night 
that  lies  between  to-day  and  to-morrow;  the 
night  may  steal  from  him  the  morrow,  and 
bring  all  his  plans  to  naught. 

"Whatever  thou  do,  do  it  wisely,  and  ponder 
the  end. " 


[6] 


n 

^Ftr»i  — 


LIFE  is  fraught  with  mysteries,  but  not  more 
than  death,  the  privation  of  life.  Death 
is  not  merely  the  absence  of  life:  stones  are 
lifeless,  but  not  dead.  Death  is  the  absence  of 
life  in  a  being  that  should  have,  and  had  life. 

But  in  living  things,  life  is  the  total  cause 
of  their  being.  Now  the  cause  of  the  being 
of  a  thing  cannot  be  interfered  with  from 
within,  because  nothing  seeks  its  own  destruc- 
tion of  its  own  accord. 

Hence  if  life  is  attacked  and  destroyed,  the 
aggressor  is  an  exterior  agent  or  agency;  and 
for  this  reason,  death  is  the  result  of  destruc- 
tive violence  exerted  upon  a  living  thing. 

Yet  a  distinction  is  made  between  natural 
and  violent  death. 

This  distinction  is  fully  justified.  For 
although  it  may  seem  odd  that  death  should 

[7] 


in  %  <$• 


follow  in  the  wake  of  life,  as  thunder  follows 
in  the  tracks  of  lightning,  yet  it  is  plain 
that  nature  favors  dissolution  in  things  built 
upon  composition.  But  for  a  special  gift 
,of  genius,  we  cannot  work  with  numbers 
unless  we  resolve  them  into  units,  decimals, 
etc.,  i.e.,  we  resolve  in  order  to  compose 
them  anew,  and  we  compose  new  things  by 
laying  together  the  parts  of  other  things.  Thus 
also  does  nature  dissolve  one  thing  in  order  to 
compose  another.  From  the  remains  of  one 
life,  nature  builds  the  dwellings  of  other  lives. 

Therefore,  although  death  is  the  result 
of  violence,  still  it  is  produced  according  to 
the  plan  of  nature,  and  is  correctly  called  a 
natural  occurrence. 

With  what  is  generally  called  violent  death, 
we  have  here  no  dealings,  just  as  arithmetic 
does  not  respect  false  tables. 

Death,  therefore,  is  natural,  but  only  as  a 
defect  of  nature. 

The  factors  of  life 

The  view  that  certain  organs  are  the  only 
or  the  chief  seats  of  life,  is  obsolete.  Certain 
organs,  as  the  brain,  or  the  heart,  are  the 

[8] 


seat  of  the  chief  activity  of  life,  it  is  true; 
a  grave  lesion  of  these  organs  induces  death: 
but  not  as  though  life  had  then  lost  its  princi- 
pal habitation,  but  because  its  chief  instru- 
ment has  been  rendered  useless.  It  is  only 
because  of  the  vital  connection  of  all  the 
organs  of  the  body  that  the  destruction  of 
one  of  the  principal  organs  drags  the  others 
into  ruin. 

As  it  is,  we  know  that  life  is  rooted  in 
every  particle  of  the  living  body,  and  that 
life  lends  a  specific  organization  and  constitu- 
tion to  the  material  of  which  it  has  built  its 
habitation,  for  upon  death  follows  not  only 
a  change  of  arrangement,  but  speedy  disso- 
lution of  the  organism  and  its  substance. 

Hence,  to  advance  another  step,  death 
is  a  twofold  dissolution:  (1)  a  dissolution 
of  the  composite,  material  and  life;  (2)  a 
dissolution  of  the  material  itself.  In  this 
sense  death  may  be  said  to  be  the  annihilation 
of  material  existence. 

If  there  were  need  here  of  an  explanation, 
we  would  refer  to  the  death  of  man,  in  which  we 
find  the  complete  cessation  of  the  life-process 
together  with  corruption  and  lasting  decay. 

[9] 


n 


As  long  as  a  man  lives,  waste  indeed  is 
going  on  in  his  body,  but  not  corruption; 
decay  also,  but  not  dissolution.  The  cells 
composing  the  body  retain  all  through  life 
their  respective  constitution  amid  the  wonder- 
fully manifold  transformations  which  they 
undergo.  But  at  the  moment  of  death  these 
cells  wither,  and  turn  from  wells  of  life  and 
health  into  poisonous  pools  of  death.  This 
change  takes  place  outside  the  confines  of 
life's  power,  and  is  material  or  chemical; 
but  because  it  is  uniform  and  universal,  it 
too  takes  place  according  to  law  and  order: 
hence  the  violence  of  death  is  the  violence 
of  nature. 

But:  Does  nature  itself  violate  the  laws  of  life? 

In  other  words:  How  is  death  to  be  carried 
into  a  living  being,  prescinding,  as  we  do, 
from  the  violence  of  exterior  agents?  Does 
death  begin  its  work  of  dissolution  within 
the  living  subject? 

Here  we  must  make  a  distinction:  At 
death  that  which  was  a  living  being  is  changed 
in  two  ways:  (1)  It  loses  life;  (2)  It  loses  its 
material  integrity. 

[10] 


The  loss  of  material  integrity  is  consequent 
upon  death;  therefore,  death  cannot  have 
begun  its  work  by  destroying  the  material 
part.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  life  is 
the  cause  of  the  existence  of  a  being  as  a 
living  being,  and  as  such  is  itself  a  safeguard 
against  death. 

Whence,  now,  is  death? 

Here  we  must  look  up  from  the  works  of 
nature  and  ask  for  her  designs.  For  life 
itself  would  bear  the  assurance  of  immortality, 
unless  we  would  deny  that  a  living  being  is 
totally  and  essentially  different  from  a  being 
dead  and  lifeless.  And  who  would  deny 
it  —  at  least  at  the  bier  of  a  loved  one? 
For  the  heart  teaches  its  lessons  as  emphati- 
cally as  the  head. 

What,  then,  is  the  condition  and  purpose  of 
earthly  life? 

All  earthly  lives  that  we  know,  are  based 
on  matter.  We  find  the  fire  of  life  burning 
out  in  material  substances;  like  the  flame  of 
a  match  on  a  piece  of  wood,  the  flame  of  a 
candle  on  a  stick  of  wax,  or,  better,  perhaps, 

[11] 


n 


like  heat  and  glow  in  a  bar  of  iron.  As  long 
as  the  material  lasts,  so  long  will  there  be 
fuel  for  the  flame.  But  the  material  is  bound 
to  be  consumed  by  being  converted  into 
energy  in  the  form  of  heat  or  light,  and  into 
smoke  and  ashes.  Thus  the  very  fuel  is  the 
ultimate  unmaking  of  the  fire  as  the  defec- 
tion of  its  material  cause.  But  as  fuel  and 
fire,  so  also  matter  and  life  dwell  together. 

Earthly  life  is  not  only  limited  to  and  con- 
fined within  material  substances,  and  mani- 
fests itself  through  matter,  but  also  employs 
matter  both  as  an  instrument  and  as  material 
for  its  functions. 

Hence  the  process  of  natural  life  is  a  process 
of  constant  change,  or,  rather,  exchange 
of  matter,  of  assimilation,  separation,  and 
secretion  or  elimination.  Life  is  going  on 
between  current  and  counter-current  of  activi- 
ties, the  one  forwarding  the  material  aids, 
the  other  disposing  of  the  refuse;  the  one 
assisting  life  positively,  the  other  lending 
aid  only  negatively. 

If  now  perfect  equality  could  be  preserved 
in  the  proportion  of  the  furnished  material 
to  the  actual  requirements  of  the  life-process 

[12] 


and  to  the  secretive  and  separative  faculty, 
there  would  be  no  reason  why  the  process 
should  not  continue  indefinitely.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  evident  that  as  surely  as  the 
proper  proportion  between  the  material  aids 
t)f  life  and  the  faculties  of  substantial  assimila- 
tion and  material  separation  is  not  preserved, 
just  so  surely  the  process  of  life  is  open  to 
fatal  disturbances. 

Hence  the  disorders  leading  to  that  dissolu- 
tion which  is  called  death  take  their  rise  in 
disorders  originating  not  in  the  matter  of  the 
body,  but  in  the  dispositon  of  the  life  principle 
toward  the  aids  of  life;  and  that  not  from  a 
natural  inclination  toward  disorder,  but  from 
a  lack  of  control  over  the  natural  appetite. 

This  we  find  to  be  true  in  the  natural  death 
of  man. 

We  will  not  refer  to  predisposition,  infection, 
contamination,  etc.,  because  these  produce 
violent  death  inasmuch  as  they  destroy  the 
injured,  infected,  or  contaminated  organism  by 
an  aggression  from  without. 

Besides  the  disorders  caused  internally, 
within  the  very  workshop  of  life,  so  to  speak, 
there  are  exterior  disorders,  such  as  excessive 

[13] 


n 


heat  or  cold,  excessive  fatigue,  want  of  timely 
rest,  want  of  exercise,  want  of  stimulants  and 
tonics  to  be  administered  to  an  overtaxed 
organism,  and  want  of  rest  in  the  several 
organs,  forced  to  work  incessantly,  without 
opportunity  for  cleansing  and  "oiling  up." 

All  these  causes  and  occasions  work  the 
untimely  breakdown  of  the  constitution  by 
interfering  with  the  fine  mechanism  of  life, 
which  nature  times  to  a  most  admirable 
precision. 

But  although  we  acknowledge  in  man 
the  propensity  toward  the  abuse  of  his 
faculties,  we  are  slow  to  burden  the  brute, 
at  least  the  wild  beast,  with  the  mischief  of 
human  nature.  Man  is  a  free  agent,  because 
he  is  an  intelligent  agent,  who  does,  or  should 
do,  his  own  thinking,  choosing,  selecting,  and 
applying.  But  because  he  is  free,  and  at  the 
same  time  wofully  ignorant  and  helpless 
unless  led  and  instructed  by  the  more  experi- 
enced, he  is  liable  to  make  mistakes,  and  injure 
himself  where  he  intends  to  profit,  whereas 
the  brute  need  but  follow  an  unbending 
appetite  to  avoid  error  and  fatalities.  Still, 
neither  is  in  man  liberty  the  cause  of  errors, 

[14] 


nor  in  the  brute  the  absence  of  liberty  the 
cause  of  freedom  from  errors. 

There  are  indeed  those  who,  lost  in  the 
labyrinth  of  human  inconsistency,  would 
deny  the  liberty  of  the  will,  and  depose  the 
authority  of  the  intellect,  making  sensitive 
perception  the  criterion  of  truth,  and  sensitive 
enjoyment  the  sum  of  human  happiness. 

But  this  error  alone  is  more  pernicious 
than  the  endless  variety  of  the  errors  of  judg- 
ment committable  under  the  view  of  liberty 
controlled  by  reason,  for  the  fact  that  it 
both  denies  the  evident  fact  of  intelligence 
and  liberty,  as  the  source  of  morality,  and 
also  involves  the  contradiction,  that  man's 
sphere  of  happiness  does  not  extend  beyond 
that  of  the  brute,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
vindicates  the  infallibility  of  the  sensitive  fac- 
ulties, and,  placing  man  on  a  level  with  the 
brute,  yet  burdens  him  with  all  the  failings 
of  his  human  nature:  because  the  dethrone- 
ment of  intellect  and  will  does  not  make  the 
blunders  of  man  cease. 

Such  thinkers  are  very  much  like  one  who 
for  fear  of  death  commits  suicide. 

Man's  case  is,  indeed,  a  strange  case. 
[15] 


n 


He  resembles  a  clock,  well  regulated,  wound, 
oiled,  and  set  in  motion,  and  yet  not  keeping 
time,  stopping  now  and  then,  losing  or  gaining 
on  the  sun,  and  in  general  giving  slim  satis- 
faction as  a  time-piece.  If  we  owned  such 
a  clock  and  could  assign  no  reason  for  its 
capers,  we  would  give  it  to  a  clock-maker 
for  inspection.  Under  the  conditions  he  could 
probably  give  only  this  decision:  the  clock 
is  old  and  the  works  worn  down;  or:  the  works 
are  jarred  out  of  gear  —  did  you  let  it  fall? 

Now  the  race  is  old;  but  the  individual 
is  as  young  as  the  first  man  at  the  same  age: 
hence  the  fault  is  in  the  nature  of  man. 

In  the  brutes  we  know  "instinct"  to  be 
the  director  of  the  activity  of  life.  Instinct, 
they  tell  us,  is  all  but  infallible.  The  fact  is 
that  in  the  sensitive  kingdom  we  meet  with 
manifestations  of  intelligence  that  mock  the 
sagacity  of  man.  The  honey-bee  constructs 
the  cells  of  its  honeycomb  with  the  skill  of  an 
expert  mathematician;  the  skill,  foresight, 
and  diligence  of  the  beaver  are  proverbial, 
as  also  the  indefatigable  energy  of  the  little 
busybody  of  the  fields,  the  ant.  The  com- 
plicated process  of  evolution  with  the  butterfly 

[16] 


is  a  standing  marvel;  the  spinning  mechanism 
of  the  spider,  and  again,  of  the  caterpillar,  is 
too  ingeniously  constructed  to  serve  even 
the  human  artisan  for  a  model.  The  varied 
structure  of  the  limbs,  parts,  and  organs  of 
birds  for  the  varying  ways  and  needs  of  their 
living  testifies  to  an  admirable  understanding 
of  soil,  food,  and  climate,  mating,  breeding, 
and  raising  the  young,  and  of  the  needs  of  the 
various  geographical  fields  over  which  they  are 
spread  in  the  capacity  of  scavengers,  care- 
takers, and  police. 

These  considerations,  and  many  others  with 
which  a  lover  of  nature  may  busy  himself 
every  day  in  the  year,  force  upon  us  the  two- 
fold question:  (1)  Whence  the  destruction 
that  death  works  in  this  beautiful  harmony 
of  life  and  its  means  of  preservation? 
(2)  Whence  the  superhuman  intelligence  that 
guides  the  beasts  of  field  and  forest? 

As  to  the  first  question:  Whence  is  death 
in  nature?  we  have  already  seen  that  in 
man  death  results  from  disorders  which  every 
individual  born  healthy  could  control  and 
avoid.  But  by  this  we  do  not  wish  to  say 
that  even  with  the  most  scrupulous  care 

[17] 


m 


man  could  make  himself  immortal.  For  even 
if  the  exchange  of  the  aids  of  life  for  life- 
force  or  vitality  would  take  place  according 
to  the  most  accurate  order  in  the  process  of 
assimilation  and  elimination,  still  the  ravages 
of  influences  from  without  could  not  be 
counteracted  immediately  and  continually 
by  any  powers  at  the  command  of  nature. 
The  body  is  vulnerable  in  its  present  condition 
and  surroundings.  True  it  is,  however,  that 
human  life  might  be  prolonged  indefinitely, 
if  only  the  body  and  its  organs  were  perfectly 
healthy  from  birth,  and  strong  enough  to 
withstand  the  ordinary  attacks  of  exterior 
agencies.  Under  this  view  the  long  lives  of 
the  biblical  patriarchs  should  not  provoke 
wonder  or  serious  doubt. 

Moreover,  the  materiality  of  the  habitation 
of  life  must  be  taken  into  consideration. 

Matter  is  inert  of  itself;  if  it  is  to  move, 
it  must  be  moved.  Now  by  the  transfer 
of  motion  from  the  motor  to  the  matter 
moved,  a  certain  proportion  of  the  force  is 
lost;  so  much,  at  least,  as  must  be  expended  to 
overcome  inertia  at  the  moment  of  impact, 
before  momentum  assists  the  motor. 

[18] 


This  deduction,  however,  does  not  hold 
for  vital  motion,  as  a  living  being  presents 
living,  animated  matter;  that  is,  in  a  living 
being  here  on  earth  the  animated  body  is 
part  of  life;  hence  the  motion  of  such  a  body 
is  caused  by  life  itself  within  the  living 
material,  and  not  by  a  force  moving  from 
without.  Consequently  there  is  neither  in- 
ertia nor  moment  of  impact. 

Again,  in  life  the  union  of  the  motor  and  the 
matter  moved  is  a  substantial  union,  effecting 
of  life  and  matter  one  indivisible  being; 
hence,  neither  impact  nor  inertia,  and,  con- 
sequently, no  mechanical  waste  of  vitality. 

Yet  because  the  process  of  waste  is  flowing 
on  under  the  same  conditions  as  the  process 
of  assimilation,  it  also  draws  on  the  principle 
of  life  for  assistance,  and  therefore,  is  itself 
a  vital  process.  Life  bound  up  in  matter 
is  ever  in  bad  company.  This  position  is 
the  unmaking  of  life.  Hence,  even  if  the  con- 
sideration of  life  in  itself  would  preclude 
the  idea  of  mechanical  waste,  still  the  fact 
that  it  cannot  exert  its  power  except  in 
and  through  matter,  suggests  the  idea  of 
exhaustion  according  to  the  condition  of 

[19] 


tn 


such  life.  In  living  things,  therefore,  the 
waste  of  energy  or  vitality  is  a  waste  affecting 
both  the  principle  and  the  habitation  of  life; 
in  other  words,  not  matter  alone,  but  animated 
matter,  as  much  as  it  is  animated,  suffers  loss 
and  impairment  through  the  activity  of  life. 
Hence  in  purely  earthly  life,  the  principle 
and  the  material  of  life  go  down  together 
in  death. 

These  conclusions  are  confirmed  by  facts, 
against  which  no  argument  may  avail. 

But  there  is  also  life  here  on  earth  which 
is  not  purely  earthly,  and  to  which,  therefore, 
these  conclusions  do  not  apply.  For  although 
even  animated  matter,  for  the  reason  that 
it  is  matter,  tends  of  itself  to  dissolution 
and  death,  yet  if  the  principle  of  life  belongs 
to  a  higher  order  of  beings,  so  as  to  have 
subsistence  of  itself,  the  consideration  of  the 
nature  of  matter  alone,  as  part  of  the  life 
of  that  composite,  cannot  suggest  the  idea  of 
dissolution. 

This  is  proved  by  the  following  argument: 
There  is  nothing  in  this  world  that  bears 
the  seed  of  destruction  and  dissolution  in 
itself  in  such  a  manner  as  ultimately  to  be 

[20] 


destroyed  absolutely,  or  annihilated.  Matter 
can  as  little  unmake  as  produce  itself,  for 
production  is  activity,  and  activity  pre- 
supposes an  agent  preexistent.  Hence  as  the 
first  production  of  matter  cannot  be  an 
activity  of  nothing,  so  the  reduction  of  matter 
into  nothing  cannot  be  an  activity  of  matter, 
because  a  thing  cannot  vacate  its  existence 
without  existing  in  something  else,  albeit 
under  different  forms.  The  act  of  self-annihi- 
lation would  be  completed  only  then  when 
activity  ceases;  but  matter  would  not  cease 
to  exist  until  the  activity  of  matter  annihilat- 
ing itself  would  cease,  and  this  activity  must 
not  cease  until  matter  ceases  to  exist.  We 
have  here  the  same  law  that  forbids  a  sail- 
boat to  move  if  the  wind  is  produced  arti- 
ficially on  the  boat  itself. 

Hence  there  is  no  question  of  absolute 
dissolution  even  in  matter. 

But  matter  certainly  is  of  itself  subject  to 
relative  dissolution;  and  this  alone  is  required 
for  the  definition  of  waste  and  death. 

In  like  manner,  the  union  of  life  and 
matter,  although  it  be  substantial,  is  not  such 
as  to  identify  matter  with  life.  This  union 

[211 


identifies  life  with  individual,  but  neither 
life  nor  individual  with  matter.  Hence  the 
severing  of  this  union  does  not  necessarily 
imply  the  destruction  of  life  in  all  cases, 
but  only  the  dissociation  of  life  from  matter, 
and,  ultimately,  the  dissolution  of  the  material 
parts  of  the  individual. 

If  we  now  examine  the  actual  process  of 
life,  we  find  that  when  either  of  the  opposing 
currents,  of  assimilation  and  elimination, 
as  typified  in  the  circulation  of  the  blood, 
gains  the  ascendancy,  a  surcharge  is  the 
result:  in  the  assimilation  (or  conversion), 
widening  of  the  blood  channels,  imbedding 
of  the  nerve-strings  in  fat,  clogging  of  heart 
and  lungs  with  heavy  or  abundant  blood, 
and,  in  consequence,  organic  disorders  in 
and  about  these  organs;  in  the  elimination, 
tumors,  cysts,  inflammations,  calcifications 
and  consequent  organic  injuries  and  patho- 
logical evils. 

But  in  order  to  prevent  either  current 
from  gaining  the  upper  hand  and  thus  dis- 
turbing the  mechanism  of  life,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  repair  instantly  all  damage 
done  to  the  organism  by  the  assertion  of  such 

[22] 


natural  functions  as  generation,  pulsation, 
circulation  and  digestion,  not  to  speak  of 
the  exactions  of  anger,  fear,  hunger  and 
thirst,  and  fatigue.  To  accomplish  this,  every 
individual  would  have  to  be  perfect  in  every 
particular.  As  it  is,  the  exactions  of  passions, 
heat  and  cold,  and  the  like,  only  accentuate 
the  lability  of  matter  and  hasten  its  dissolu- 
tion. But  this  proves  that  life  and  matter 
are  separable  manifestations  of  existence, 
the  one  in  its  rise  pressing  upon  the  other, 
and  must,  therefore,  not  be  identified  in  any 
living  substance. 

Hence  if  there  is  life  here  on  earth  inde- 
pendent of  matter  as  to  its  substance,  its 
existence  in  matter  does  not  necessitate  its 
downfall  with  matter  in  death. 

The  second  question  proposed  is  this: 
Whence  the  superhuman  intelligence  that 
guides  the  beasts  of  field  and  forest? 

The  intelligence  manifested  by  the  brutes 
cannot  be  their  own : 

(1)  Because  it  is  limited   to   the   specific 
requirements  of  their  lives  and  constitutions. 

(2)  Because  it  leaves  them  without  resource 

[23] 


rf  4 

m 

* 


when  the  conditions  of  their  lives  undergo 
a  change  not  provided  for  in  their  habits 
and  instincts. 

(3)  Because  it  lacks  individuality,,  operat- 
ing hi  precisely  the  same  way  in  every  member 
of  the  tribe. 

(4)  Because  on  this  account  it  is  not  sus- 
ceptible of  improvement  and  development. 

But,  nevertheless,  it  is  an  intelligence. 
Human  intelligence,  which  is  the  basis  of 
our  comparison  —  because  we  do  not  practi- 
cally know  of  any  other  intelligence  before 
we  have  experienced  the  operation  of  our 
own  —  differs  radically  from  that  which  is 
operative  in  the  brute: 

(1)  Human  intelligence  is  not  limited  to 
the  requirements  of  human  life  and  constitu- 
tion :  in  proof,  witness  science,  art  and  poetry. 

(2)  Human  intelligence  points  out  abundant 
resources   in   cases   of   need   and   necessity: 
witness  the  manifold  ways  of  procuring  a 
livelihood,  etc. 

(3)  Human  intelligence  does  not  operate 
in  the  same  way  at  all   (except  formaliter) 
in    any   two   persons:   witness  the  proverb: 
"Quot  capita,  tot  sensus." 

F24] 


(4)  Human  intelligence  is  perfectible  in  the 
individual:  witness  learning,  reasoning,  etc. 

(5)  Hence  we  speak  of  man  as  a  person,  as 
one  who  stands  to  an  accounting  for  himself. 

We  may  indeed  vindicate  a  different  genius 
to  each  species  of  the  brutes,  but  we  cannot 
ascribe  to  each  a  different  intellect. 

In  man,  of  course,  genius  means  more  than 
in  the  brute.  In  man  it  appears  as  an  ele- 
vation of  the  mind  in  the  direction  of  the 
immaterial  and  universal;  in  brutes  it  mani- 
fests itself  as  a  leaning  toward  a  certain  mode 
of  life.  This  leaning  is  visible  in  each  species, 
and  lends  stability  to  the  species.  In  man  the 
elevation  of  mind  is  so  transitory  that  it  is 
not  only  not  an  hereditary  endowment,  but 
does  not  even  actually  prevail  at  every 
moment  of  the  life  of  him  whom  it  adorns. 
Hence  there  is  an  essential  distinction  be- 
tween what  is  called  genius  in  the  brute,  and 
what  constitutes  genius  in  man. 

That  the  intelligence  of  the  brutes  is 
limited  to  certain  requirements  of  their  lives 
and  constitutions  is  evident  from  the  palpable 
fact,  that  the  various  classes  of  brutes  known 
to  us  have  never  yet  departed  from  the  mode 

[25] 


in  tit 

» 


of  living  and  the  structure  of  their  respective 
ancestors.  That  they  have  made  such  a 
departure  is  not  to  be  assumed  for  theorizing 
even,  when  the  theory  is  set  up  to  support, 
not  a  fact,  but  an  invention  or  fiction,  but 
is  to  be  proved  in  contradiction  to  the  honest 
observations  and  experiments  of  the  present. 
The  habits  of  the  animals  that  we  know  are 
the  same  now  that  they  have  been  throughout 
the  ages  of  history;  nor  has  archaeology  so 
far  proved  anything  to  the  contrary. 

Furthermore,  the  brute  is  left  without 
resource  when  the  conditions  of  its  life  undergo 
a  decided  change.  How  utterly  helpless  the 
most  sagacious  ant  may  be  made,  when  its 
sagacity  is  put  to  test,  may  be  observed 
by  any  one  obstructing  its  natural  aims.  This 
seems  to  be  a  contradiction  in  view  of  the 
enthusiastic  praises  sounded  by  some  modern 
entomologists  in  proclaiming  the  "  almost" 
human  wisdom  of  that  little  lump  of  energy; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  true.  Cut  off  an  ant 
from  its  home  by  a  stream  of  water,  and  see 
whether  it  will  be  wise  enough  to  ferry  across 
on  a  dry  leaf  or  twig,  steering  its  raft  against 
the  current,  etc. 

[26] 


However,  if  we  observe  the  ant's  ways 
carefully,  we  may  learn  that  all  its  actions, 
diversified  though  they  be,  are  governed 
by  an  inflexible  instinct  directing  them  to 
the  welfare  of  the  species.  In  exercising 
this  instinct,  the  ant  often  acts  as  foolishly 
as  the  hen  brooding  china  eggs,  if  we  prescind 
from  an  ulterior  purpose  of  which  the  ant 
is  not  aware.  The  ant  then  by  its  instinct 
serves  the  intentions  of  an  intelligence  that 
rules  and  governs  the  world  even  in  its 
tiniest  forms. 

An  instance  of  this  inflexibility  of  instinct 
is  recorded  by  Wasmann  ("Seelenleben  der 
Ameisen,"  page  126)  as  follows: 

"The  ants  treat  the  larvae  of  the  Lome- 
chusa  even  at  the  time  when  they  change  into 
a  chrysalis  in  the  same  manner  as  their  own, 
and  carefully  bed  them  in  a  vault  of  clay. 
The  larvae  of  the  ants  are  shortly  taken 
out  of  the  clay,  where  they  have  already 
spun  their  cocoon.  But  the  larvae  of  that 
beetle  (Lomechusa}  do  not  spin  a  tough 
cocoon,  but  only  a  very  thin  silky  web, 
which  tears  the  moment  they  are  extracted 
from  the  ground ;  the  larvae  of  the  Lomechusa 

[27] 


n 


are  then  immediately  reimbedded  with  great 
care  in  another  place,  extracted  again,  carried 
about  and  buried  over  and  over  again,  until 
at  last  they  dry  up  and  die.  Most  of  the 
Lomechusa  larvae  are  killed  in  this  way, 
through  the  folly  of  the  ants,  before  the 
chrysalid  transformation;  but  also  of  those 
in  the  chrysalid  state  the  ants  unearth  many, 
and  —  out  of  love?  —  eat  them  up." 

In  this  instance  as  in  many  others,  the 
ant  employs  its  instinct  on  the  correct  theory, 
but  knows  nothing  of  the  foolishness  of  its 
performances  on  account  of  the  difference 
of  the  object.  It  has  not  the  faculty  of 
making  a  distinction  on  the  basis  of  changed 
purposes  and  requirements.  But  if  the  ant 
would  treat  the  larvse  of  Lomechusa  as  they 
require,  and  not  as  it  is  wont  to  treat  its 
own,  it  would  work  its  own  extinction. 

^hus  we  see  that  He  who  created  the  ants 
employs  their  instincts  for  their  own  con- 
servation without  the  ants  knowing  that 
they  are  acting  wisely  on  His  plan,  and 
foolishly  on  their  own.  For  it  is  not  the 
design  of  the  ant  to  destroy  the  larvse  of  its 
guests;  but  it  simply  follows  the  instinct 

[28] 


which  guides  it  in  the  care  of  its  own 
larvae. 

The  intelligence  operating  through  the 
instinct  of  the  brute  marks  out  the  same  line 
of  action  for  every  member  of  each  tribe, 
and  indeed  so  consistently  that  even  the 
young  are  expert  before  they  can  be  taught. 

The  brute  does  not  do  its  own  thinking, 
unless  we  concede  that  its  young  are  more 
fortunate  in  being  more  generously  endowed 
with  intelligence  than  the  offspring  of  man. 
Still  a  two  year  old  colt  has  not  improved 
in  intelligence  and  perception,  whereas  a 
two  year  old  child  gives  manifest  proofs  of 
dawning  intelligence.  The  reason  is  that 
the  brute  has  no  moral  perfection  to  attain; 
hence  it  need  not  be  responsible  for  its  actions, 
and,  consequently,  acts  in  accordance  with 
laws  dictated  and  guarded  by  an  intelligence 
exterior  to  itself. 

The  "  intelligence "  of  the  brute  can  be 
neither  perfected  nor  developed.  It  does  not 
belong  to  the  brute;  it  is  only  reflected  in  the 
instinct.  Instinct  is  a  copyist,  intelligence  is 
an  author.  The  instinct  of  every  animal 
of  one  tribe  is  prearranged,  and  predisposed 

[29] 


n 


to  the  same  single  line  of  action,  and  limited 
to  the  same  means  always;  hence  it  is  neither 
perfectible,  because  it  is  fully  equipped  for 
its  work,  nor  capable  of  development,  because 
ever  drawn  toward  an  unchanging  purpose: 
where  there  is  no  further  asking,  there  is  no 
further  response. 

The  superhuman  intelligence,  therefore,  that 
guides  the  beasts  of  field  and  forest,  is  a 
stranger  to  them.  It  is  the  Intelligence  that 
"spoke,  and  they  were  made,  that  commanded, 
and  they  were  created." 

If  now  we  know  that  death  overtakes  also 
the  brute  despite  its  well-ordered  life,  we 
know  also  that  the  order  in  the  life  of  the 
brute  does  not  depend  upon  the  "  intelligence  " 
of  the  brute,  but  upon  a  power  emplojdng  the 
brute  for  its  own  purposes.  Therefore,  decay 
and  dissolution  overtake  the  brute  according 
to  the  disposition  of  that  Intelligence  under 
whose  laws  the  brute  lives  and  thrives. 
That  the  matter  which  forms  part  of  the 
brute  is  corruptible,  we  know  only  by  experi- 
ence ;  there  is  no  a  priori  proof  for  the  destruc- 
tibility  of  matter  in  any  shape.  Matter  might 
be,  and  for  all  we  know  of  its  nature,  ought 

[30] 


to  be,  indestructible;  hence,  if  matter  is  not 
incorruptible  —  as  the  material  part  of  living 
beings,  and  is  subject  to  change,  dissolution 
and  disintegration  —  we  are  strongly  urged, 
by  the  natural  consideration  of  things,  to 
subscribe  humbly  to  the  words  of  Paul  of 
Tarsus,  who  was  not  only  an  Apostle,  but 
also  a  man  of  learning,  as  open-sighted  as  any 
scientist  of  our  age:  "For  we  know  that  every 
creature  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  even 
now."  (Rom.  viii.  22.)  He  is  looking  for  a 
restoration  of  the  primitive  creation:  and  if 
for  a  restoration,  also  for  a  re-formation,  a 
reestablishment  of  conditions  that  have  been 
lost. 

Corruption  certainly  is  the  beginning  of 
destruction,  and  a  phase  of  decay;  still 
even  unchecked  corruption  does  not  end  in 
destruction,  the  absolute  defection  of  matter. 
Hence  the  corruption  of  definite  forms  of 
being  —  not  undetermined  forms,  such  as 
are  destined  of  their  nature  to  be  developed 
and  to  lead  to  higher  forms,  as  seeds,  germs, 
etc. —  is  not  in  itself  a  consequence  of  the 
lability  of  matter,  but  is  induced  by  an  agency 
exterior  to  those  forms  of  being. 

[31] 


in  Hit  jllm&Pl*i  *»£ 


Hence  if  even  such  forms  of  life  as  those 
which  appear  partly  in  matter,  but  principally 
in  independent  life-principles,  as  man,  are 
invaded  by  death,  it  seems  reasonable  to 
conclude  that  death  is  rather  a  curse  than 
a  natural  termination  of  life,  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  death  is  the  result  of  nature  cursed; 
of  nature  striving  with  impaired  powers  after 
its  ends:  as  water,  held  up  in  its  course,  rises 
and  eddies,  and  at  last  breaks  down  its  own 
channel  and  destroys  its  own  bed  and  loses  its 
course,  flowing  about  to  no  purpose  and  going 
to  waste  in  the  sand. 

Therefore,  as  we  have  observed  that  in  man 
errors  and  mistakes  in  the  use  of  the  aids 
of  bodily  life  introduce  death,  when  his 
intelligence  should  naturally  warn  him  against 
abuses  of  any  kind,  so  we  find  that  in  the 
brute  a  power  exterior  to  its  life  controls  its 
existence  by  regulating  its  relations  to  the 
general  order  in  nature  according  to  the  pur- 
poses of  its  life.  Death,  then,  is  the  dark 
messenger  of  the  Creator;  and  for  the  fact 
that  death  ensues  upon  abuses  and  natural 
frailty  in  man,  bowing  him  under  the  influences 
of  his  condition  and  environment,  and  in  the 

[32] 


brute  ensues  upon  the  defection  of  its  pur- 
pose, death  is  a  curse  and  punishment  in- 
flicted upon  the  earth,  the  final  destruction 
of  the  wreck  of  what  was  made  in  the  begin- 
ning in  power  and  splendor. 

If  this  consideration  throws  any  light  on 
the  mysteries  of  death,  it  reveals  the  justice 
of  the  heart's  craving  for  liberation  out  of 
the  bondage  of  death,  and  the  reality  of 
that  echo  in  the  soul,  that  lingers  forever, 
that  does  not  die,  but  is  reenforced  by  the 
thought  of  death,  of  the  promise  of  immor- 
tality. Man  must  have  been  endowed  with 
immortality  at  his  origin.  Nor  was  this 
prerogative  conferred  upon  him  like  a  precious 
garment,  the  doffing  of  which  would  not 
merely  mean  the  loss  of  a  gift  superadded 
to  his  nature,  but,  rather,  degradation  and 
exposure  to  unnatural  ills  and  dangers.  Im- 
mortality was  woven  into  his  flesh  and  spirit, 
as  the  design  of  a  flower  is  woven  with 
silk  into  cloth:  remove  it,  and  you  must 
loosen  the  web.  The  natural  gifts  of  man 
were  shaped  and  fashioned  upon  this  endow- 
ment, so  that  now  they  are  not  in  a  normal 
condition,  but  wounded,  bruised,  sore,  dam- 

[33] 


in  tit*  jHtjt&itttf  uf  IJmtlt 

*  *  » 

aged.  Immortality  must  have  been  for  man 
what  fire  is  to  the  diamond,  limpidity  to  the 
water,  bloom  and  fragrance  to  the  flower, —  his 
life,  his  glory,  his  heritage  forever. 

Death,  what  a  monster! 

Were  the  brutes  also  accorded  the  gift  of 
immortality  ? 

No.  The  immortality  of  man  is  a  gift  of 
a  higher  order  than  it  is  for  the  brute  to 
receive  and  appreciate.  Immortality  is  the 
gift  of  a  Father,  the  pledge  of  the  favor  of 
God. 

If,  then,  death  was  in  the  world  before  man 
was  made,  it  was  not  death  wrought  upon 
the  child  of  God;  where  there  is  no  nobility, 
there  is  no  title  to  lose,  and  where  there  is  no 
royal  Father,  there  is  no  nobility  of  estate. 
But  if  death  held  sway  in  the  irrational 
world,  it  must  have  been  the  quiet  passing 
away  of  life  at  the  completion  of  its  task, 
like  ice  melting  into  water;  it  could  not  be 
the  consequence  of  a  gradual  wearing  out  of 
lives  that  were  perfect  in  their  own  way  and 
placed  in  perfect  conditions.  The  violence 
of  death  entered  the  world  through  the  gate 
of  rebellion.  Death,  as  we  know  it,  is  the 

[34] 


result  of  disorders  visible  and,  per  se,  con- 
trollable, and  yet  never  brought  under  control 
for  the  reason  that  disorder  runs  through  the 
entire  order  of  nature,  as  cancer-tainted  blood 
may  run  through  an  organism  otherwise 
healthy  and  working  well. 

The  disorder  in  the  world  could  not  come 
from  within  the  creation,  which  was  preserved, 
as  it  had  been  arranged,  by  the  will  of  Him 
who  created  it;  and  disorder,  as  found  in 
man,  could  be  introduced  only  by  the  rebellion 
of  man  against  God.  But  man,  the  only 
rational  creature  under  the  sun,  rebelling, 
must  draw  into  the  curse  of  his  ingratitude 
the  irrational  creation,  which  was  made  for 
his  sake.  Would  a  father  not  curse  the  in- 
heritance that  caused  his  son  to  go  astray? 
Therefore  death  wiped  out  the  signature  of 
the  Great  King  from  the  title  of  His  children 
by  adoption,  after  sin  had  effaced  His  image; 
for  "by  sin,  death  entered  into  this  world." 


[35] 


2. 


IN  the  foregoing  consideration  we  took 
for  granted  the  proposition,  that  in  man  the 
principle  of  life  is  independent  of  matter 
for  its  existence.  The  question  now  pro- 
posed for  examination  is  this:  If  death  is 
the  dissolution  of  the  factors  of  earthly  life, 
is  it  not  also  the  complete  vanishing  of  these 
factors? 

This  question  is  answered  under  the  follow- 
ing distinctions:  If  all  the  factors  of  earthly 
life  are  perishable  —  yes;  if  one  of  them  is 
such  as  to  endure  outside  the  other  —  no. 

I.  The  factors  of  life  are:  the  body,  or 
matter,  and  the  soul,  or  life  proper,  or  the 
life-principle.  But  the  matter  is  living 
matter,  matter  permeated  by  the  activity  of 
life;  the  life-principle  may  be  either  depend- 
ent or  independent. 

This  last  distinction  seems  to  be  begging 
the  question  ;  yet  it  is  not.  For  life  and  matter 
are  opposites  of  their  very  nature;  still  matter 
may  be  endowed  with  life,  and  through  life 

[36] 


with  a  new  form  of  being  and  existence; 
whereas  life  cannot  be  acted  upon  by  matter 
in  any  way.  The  form  or  director  of  a  living 
being  is  posterior  to  the  induction  of  life; 
not  indeed  in  regard  to  time,  but  in  regard 
to  origin.  Nor  does  the  superiority  of  any 
form  depend  upon  the  quality  of  life.  For 
although  " living  is  the  being  of  living  things," 
yet  it  is  not  except  by  the  specific  form. 

This  can  be  proved  by  the  results  of  biologi- 
cal experiment  and  investigation: 

The  elements  of  generation  are  known 
to  be,  in  animals,  the  spermatozoon  (living 
seed)  and  the  egg.  These  two  elements 
have  life  before  they  unite  for  the  forming 
of  a  new  individual.  They  also  have  each 
a  form.  In  generation  their  life  is  retained, 
but  their  respective  forms  are  lost.  Hence 
the  induction  of  the  form  of  the  individual 
evolving  follows  upon  the  basis  of  preexistent 
life.  And  for  this  reason  the  form  does  not 
depend  upon  life  for  any  of  its  perfections. 
But  because  life,  after  the  original  forms 
of  the  germs  are  lost,  is  also  an  ordered  life, 
and  order  is  not  established  except  by  a 
directing  principle,  the  new  life  is  elevated 

[37] 


in  tit* 


to  the  order  of  those  beings  of  which  the  form 
is  the  exponent. 

The  form  is  no  more  material  in  the  chemical 
and  atomical  sense  than  life  itself,  but  on 
this  account  it  need  not  be  immaterial  in 
the  sense  that  it  can  subsist  outside  of  matter; 
i.e.,  it  may  well  be  dependent  for  its  existence 
upon  the  matter  which  it  now  quickens  and 
informs.  But  being  a  stranger  to  matter  in 
so  tar  as  it  is  the  principle  of  life,  no  one 
could  maintain  that  it  can  in  no  manner  be 
independent  of  matter  for  its  existence. 

The  induction  of  the  form  seems  to  be 
a  very  enigmatical  process;  but  by  comparing 
things,  and  testing  one  by  the  other,  we  can 
obtain  safe  conclusions  concerning  secrets  at 
first  apparently  not  to  be  revealed. 

In  parthenogenetic  generation,  where  the 
germ  of  the  ovulum  alone  is  the  bearer  of 
life,  it  must  also  be  the  bearer  of  the  form 
of  the  new  being.  Life  is  not  dormant  as 
life  in  this  ovum,  for  the  ovum  may  proceed 
to  develop  of  its  own  accord,  or  may  be 
fructified  at  any  moment.  But  life  is  dormant 
as  formal  life,  i.e.,  as  the  life  of  an  individual 
after  the  species.  The  form,  therefore,  lies 

[381 


dormant;  for  if  it  were  not  present  at  all, 
it  would  either  have  to  be  infused  by  an 
exterior  agency  or  developed  by  the  union 
of  the  ovulum  with  the  seed-cell;  but  in  the 
latter  case  there  would  not  be  parthenogenetic 
generation,  and  in  the  former,  we  should  have 
to  go  back  to  the  interposition  of  a  power 
above  nature.  Hence  we  must  conclude  that 
as  specific  life  is  dormant  in  the  ovum  (or 
ovule),  so  is  also  the  specific  form.  The  form 
in  rousing  transforms  life  into  the  life  of  the 
new  being  after  the  pattern  of  that  certain 
circle  of  beings  from  which  the  ovum  was 
derived.  But  this  process  is  the  most  palpable 
case  of  induction  imaginable,  and  shows 
plainly  that  such  forms  are  not  really 
immaterial  forms,  furthering  and  bearing 
independent  life,  but,  rather,  material  in  the 
sense  that  they  are  bound  up  in  matter  and 
doomed  to  share  the  vicissitudes  of  material 
existence,  death  with  and  in  matter  —  hence, 
they  are  the  bearers  of  dependent  life. 

In  the  ordinary,  spermatic  generation  the 
induction  or  evolution  of  the  form  takes  place 
in  the  same  manner.  The  two  elements  of 
generation  (sperma  and  ovum)  in  union  are 

[391 


n 


the  bearer  of  life;  hence  as  the  form  follows 
life,  the  two  elements  become  the  bearer,  or 
the  origin,  of  the  proper  form,  and  of  the 
specific  activity  of  life. 

The  activity  of  the  form. 

From  considering  the  evolution  (induction 
or  development)  of  the  form,  we  must  pass  on 
to  consider  the  activity  of  the  form,  in  order  to 
study  more  closely  the  nature  of  the  form. 

As  far  as  we  know  from  the  process  of  gen- 
eration, there  is  no  other  than  independence 
from  chemical  or  atomical  composition  re- 
quired for  the  relative  immateriality  of  forms. 
If  now  this  relative  immateriality,  i.e.,  the 
existence  of  forms  not  independent  of  matter, 
suffices  to  account  for  all  the  manifestations  of 
all  earthly  life,  we  must  stay  our  search  and 
pronounce  all  life-forms  dependent  forms. 

But  we  meet  with  manifestations  of  life 
that  cannot  be  explained  on  the  supposition 
of  the  substantial  interdependency  of  matter 
and  life,  because  they  reach  out  far  beyond 
the  requirements  of  earthly  existence;  and 
of  such  also,  at  times,  as  indicate  the  very 
subversion  of  the  purpose  of  existence. 

[40] 


No  man  blinds  himself  to  the  difference 
observable  between  the  manner  of  acting  on 
the  part  of  the  brute  and  that  on  the  part 
of  man.  The  brute,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
preceding  consideration,  does  not  itself  know 
the  purpose  of  its  activity,  but  is  guided  by 
an  instinct  in  the  power  of  an  agency  exterior 
and  superior  to  the  brute.  It  would  indeed 
be  marvelous  if  the  beast  would  act  foolishly 
with  deliberation  in  order  to  secure  an  end 
the  very  opposite  of  which  is  the  object  of 
its  intention.  Such  argumentation  is  so 
manifestly  absurd,  once  that  it  is  placed 
before  our  eyes,  that  we  hail  it  with  a  smile  of 
well-deserved  humiliation  —  but  such  argu- 
mentation is  involved  in  the  supposition  of 
autonomic  animal  intelligence. 

Autonomy,  therefore,  is  one  criterion  of 
the  difference  between  human  and  animal 
intelligence  and  operation;  that  is,  the  brute 
is  governed  by  an  intelligence  not  its  own, 
man  governs  himself  by  an  intelligence  which 
determines  itself.  The  instrument  in  the 
hand  of  that  intelligence  which  directs  the 
brute  is  instinct,  and  the  scope  of  that 
intelligence,  the  welfare  of  the  species,  whereas 

[41] 


n 


the  scope  of  intelligence  is  the  welfare  of  the 
individual. 

Now  in  man,  intelligence  is  both  operator 
and  instrument,  as  no  man  may  deny,  unless 
he  deny  his  humanity;  and  the  scope  of  human 
intelligence  is  not  only  the  welfare  of  both 
individual  and  race,  but  also  end  and  means, 
and  their  proper  relation  —  hence,  the  ulterior 
purpose  of  his  work,  and  over  and  above  all 
this,  the  embellishment  of  life  in  a  region 
where  the  brute  has  never  entered  :  in  science, 
art,  and  —  self-discipline  for  the  sake  of  an 
immaterial  good,  generally  called  virtue. 

These  embellishments  are  absolutely  beyond 
the  scope  of  animal,  and  plainly  within  the 
natural  scope  of  human  life;  hence  also 
beyond  the  reach  of  animal  instinct,  and 
naturally  within  the  grasp  of  intelligence. 
Man  and  beast  may  indeed  meet  on  the 
level  of  animal  life,  but  not  except  by  man's 
descending  from  his  hallowed  height  of  inde- 
pendence. 

There  is  as  much  difference  between  animal 
instinct  and  human  intelligence  as  is  found 
between  the  respective  natural  manifestations 
of  animal  and  human  life. 

[42] 


Is  this  difference  formal  and  essential,  or 
only  material  and  accidental? 

The  difference  between  the  manifestations 
of  animal  and  human  life,  and,  consequently, 
of  instinct  and  intelligence,  is  essential,  if 
it  is  founded  not  on  the  subject  directly 
bearing  the  principle  of  intelligence,  but  on 
the  immediate  object  of  the  operation  of  the 
life-principle.  For  if  a  difference  were  sought 
in  intelligence  objectively,  none  could  be  found, 
since  both  man  and  beast  act  according  to 
intelligence,  man  according  to  his  own,  the 
beast  according  to  that  whose  purposes  it 
accomplishes  in  ignorance;  hence  intelligence, 
in  so  far  as  it  accounts  for  its  own  operations, 
and  the  operations  of  life,  is  called  reason  from 
reor,  I  think,  judge,  account  for;  or  VERNUNFT 
from  VERNEHMEN,  to  judge,  to  examine,  to 
ask  an  accounting. 

This  faculty  does  not  appear  to  guide  the 
operations  of  the  brute,  nor  the  operations 
(if  such  we  may  call  certain  manifestations  of 
vegetative  growth)  of  such  plants  as  e.g.,  irises, 
which  exhibit  great  "skill"  in  availing  them- 
selves of  every  advantage  offering. 

The  reason  for  the  lack  of  this  faculty 
[43] 


n 


in  the  brute  is  that  it  is  neither  necessary 
nor  exercisable,  because  the  intelligence 
governing  the  brute  comprehends  at  once 
the  entire  purpose  of  the  life  of  the  brute  and 
molds  the  operations  of  this  life  on  the  plan 
of  its  purpose,  whereas  man  advances  hi 
knowledge  step  by  step  through  a  long  and 
tedious  course  of  training,  teaching,  and 
experience.  The  first  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  the  young  of  the  brutes  are  as  well 
acquainted  with  the  requirements  of  their 
life  as  the  old  and  tried;  the  other,  from 
our  personal  knowledge  and  experience. 

This  is  the  common  consent  of  the  human 
race,  antedating  all  reasoning  on  this  subject. 
Animals  are  never  "punished,"  i.e.,  subjected 
to  pain  with  the  view  to  make  them  atone 
for  wrong-doing;  suffering  is  inflicted  on  them 
solely  for  the  purposes  of  training.  With 
the  same  end  in  view  they  are  treated  kindly, 
and  their  cravings  and  inclinations  favored. 
If,  however,  one  inflicts  pain  on  a  beast 
with  the  intention  of  paining  alone,  he  acts 
from  cruelty  or  anger,  as  he  who  kicks  at 
the  stone  over  which  he  stumbled;  and  if 
one  fondles  and  caresses  a  beast  with  affection, 

[44] 


he  acts  unreasonably  through  a  perversion 
and  degradation  of  the  sense  of  attachment 
and  friendship,  more  unreasonably  because 
of  the  want  of  poetic  sentiment,  than  a  child 
fondling  and  conversing  with  a  doll.  Some 
there  are  indeed  whose  hearts  would  not 
respond  to  the  wailing  of  a  hungry  child, 
but  who  would  melt  with  pity  for  a  stray 
dog  or  cat.  They  are  suffering  from  per- 
version of  instincts,  consequent  upon  moral 
obliquity. 

Now,  the  principle  of  intelligence  is  the 
same  as  the  principle  of  life,  and  its  immedi- 
ate subject,  animality,  so  that  we  distinguish 
in  man  and  beast  (1)  life  and  sensation,  which 
they  have  in  common  in  the  same  order,  and 
(2)  the  principle  directing  life  and  sensation 
in  their  operations,  intelligence. 

Sensitive  life  —  animality  —  is  in  itself 
indifferent  to  a  higher  determination;  hence 
man  is  an  animal.  But  this  animal  —  man  — 
acts  on  his  own  conscious  initiative,  on  reason. 
And  this  attribute  distinguishes  him  from 
the  brute;  not  as  if  the  brute  acted  irrationally, 
for  the  brute  does  not  act  contrary  to  reason, 
that  is,  in  opposition  to  a  fixed  purpose, 

[45] 


d  T(  ^Z«rf         v  d* 

th*  Jplmajntt  nf 

•  > 


but  it  acts  rationally,  even  when  it  blunders 
according  to  our  conception  of  the  immediate 
result  of  its  activity,  its  seeming  confusion 
being  the  condition  of  success.  Yet  not 
knowing  the  purpose  of  its  activity,  it  acts 
on  the  instigation  of  an  intelligence  reflected 
on  the  field  of  sensitive  perception  through 
instinct,  but  not  on  its  own  conscious 
initiative. 

Hence  if  man  is  not  only  an  animal  like 
the  brute,  but  is  man  by  virtue  of  his  reason, 
it  is  reason  that  introduces  the  essential 
difference  between  man  and  beast. 

Intelligence  adds  a  new  reality  to  the  subject 
of  sensitive  life:  independence  and  insight; 
independence  of  composing,  and  insight  into, 
and  discernment  of  purpose.  Instinct  does 
not  add  a  new  reality  to  life  and  sensation, 
but  is  a  passive  faculty,  prearranged  and 
predetermined  to  the  impressions  of  the  senses. 
It  can  compose  impressions,  without  abstract- 
ing (as  is  evinced  by  the  limitations  placed 
upon  animal  activity),  in  a  manner  similar 
to  the  process  of  crystallization  in  minerals, 
or  to  the  forming  of  ice-flowers  on  the  window 
pane,  each  new  composition  producing  an 

[46] 


effect,  new,  indeed,  but  not  above  the  nature 
of  the  elements  of  composition. 

Now  the  manifestations  of  life  assume 
character  from  the  activity  of  the  power 
producing  and  directing  them.  This  activity 
is  characterized  by  its  tendency  toward  the 
purpose  of  life.  Hence  the  purpose,  or 
object,  of  life  is  also  the  purpose  or  object 
of  the  power  governing  life :  of  instinct  in  the 
brute,  and  of  intelligence  in  man. 

But  the  purpose  of  human  life  is,  as  we 
have  shown  above  (p.  24,  ff.),  essentially  dis- 
tinct from  the  purpose  of  merely  animal  life, 
insomuch  that  the  particular  and  material  in 
purpose  and  action  is  the  natural  object  of 
the  life-power  of  the  brute,  and  the  universal 
and  abstract  is  the  cognate  object  of  the 
powers  of  life  in  man.  Therefore,  also,  the 
governing  power  is  essentially  distinct  in  man 
and  beast,  or,  intelligence  is  essentially  distinct 
from  the  instinct. 

The  essential  characteristic  of  human  in- 
telligence as  compared  with  the  instinct  of 
the  brute  is  its  freedom  from  subjection  to 
an  exterior  agency,  or  its  autonomy.  This 
renders  it  independent  in  its  own  functions 

[47] 


n 


of  the  assistance  of  the  senses.  Hence 
human  intelligence  represents  independent 
life,  and  makes  the  bearer  of  this  intelligence, 
the  human  soul,  an  immaterial  agency,  a 
spirit. 

II.  But  there  are  also  manifestations  in 
the  life  of  man  which  point  sternly  at  an 
unnatural  rebellion  of  some  faculties  against 
the  dominion  of  the  intellect.  These  mani- 
festations emanate  from  the  abuse  of  the 
liberty  adorning  the  will. 

A  natural  faculty,  such  as  the  will  of  man, 
should  further  rather  than  impede  the  per- 
fection of  man.  If  then  this  faculty  becomes 
at  any  time  a  danger  to  man's  welfare,  it 
must  have  been  impaired,  or  now  be  sub- 
jected to  evil  influences  that  divert  its  energy 
to  improper  uses. 

Such  perversion  is  not  found  in  the  appetite 
of  the  brute. 

But  perversion  is  only  a  sign  of  liberty. 
If  the  human  will,  would  not  respond  but 
to  exterior  evil  influences,  and  could  not 
determine  itself  to  action  contrary  to  any  and 
all  influences  from  without,  or  to  action  con- 
sistent with  either  of  two  motives  equally 

[48] 


0£  tike  $&ui 


good  or  equally  evil  in  a  certain  respect, 
or  one  good  and  the  other  evil,  it  would  not 
in  reality  be  a  free  agent.  It  would  be  free 
only  as  the  weathervane  that  moves  with 
the  wind.  Such  liberty  is  not  liberty,  but 
mobility;  it  is  passive,  not  active  liberty, 
unworthy  of  a  self-conscious  intelligent  being. 

The  idea  of  liberty  requires  internal  inde- 
pendence as  its  basis. 

But  the  human  will  is  not  independent 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  have  the  power  of 
declining  a  response  to  every  kind  of  influence, 
or,  as  to  be  attracted  beyond  the  power  of 
resistance  by  no  object  whatever;  for  under 
this  supposition  it  would  be  absolutely  supreme 
in  power,  as  it  would  have  to  be  absolutely 
supreme  in  being  —  which  it  is  not.  The 
will  being  a  faculty,  a  working  power  in  man, 
must  act  according  to  its  proper  object.  The 
proper  object  of  the  will  is  that  which  is 
perceived  to  be  good.  Hence  we  find  these 
elements  in  mental  liberty:  (1)  perception, 
belonging  to  the  intellect,  (2)  the  formal 
object  of  the  will,  the  good,  (3)  the  material 
object  about  which  the  appetitive  faculties  are 
exercised. 

[49] 


The  operation  of  the  will  is  determined 
indirectly  by  the  presentation  of  the  particular 
object;  directly,  by  the  good  in  the  object. 
But  the  last  stage  of  the  determination 
to  action  is  completed  within  the  will  itself, 
of  its  own  power,  by  consent  according  to 
the  appetibility  of  the  object  presented, 
after  the  formal  object,  goodness. 

The  presentation  of  the  particular  object 
may  be  made  either  by  the  intellect  alone, 
or  by  the  intellect  and  sensitive  appetite  com- 
bined, or  by  the  sensitive  appetite  alone,  as 
will  appear  below. 

It  is,  therefore,  the  perception  of  goodness 
in  the  several  objects  presented  upon  which 
the  will  exercises  its  actions.  Now,  the 
presentation  is  made  directly  by  the  intellect, 
which  dictates  to  the  will;  hence  the  will  is 
not  independent  of  the  operation  and  influence 
of  the  intellect.  Again,  the  objects  presented 
under  the  aspect  of  good  may  be  good  only 
in  the  view  of  the  intellect  according  to  some 
relation  they  bear  to  the  end  obtainable  at 
present  (limitation  of  time),  the  intellect 
suppressing  the  respect  for  the  formal  object 
of  the  will,  goodness  for  its  own  sake. 

[501 


Nor  is  it  possible  that  the  formal  object 
of  the  will  be  always  actually  present  to  the 
intellect,  because  most  objects  present  them- 
selves as  good  under  the  guise  of  the  beautiful, 
the  useful,  the  gratifying,  the  just,  etc. 

Still,  should  the  objects  of  volition  present 
themselves  to  the  intellect  in  any  other 
semblance  but  that  of  evil,  or  the  useless,  the 
intellect  could  not  mistake  the  good  in  them, 
because  beauty,  usefulness,  gratification,  justice, 
etc.,  are  good,  and  in  reality  only  varied  views 
of  what  is  good  also  in  itself. 

If  an  object  presents  itself  as  evil,  it  is 
rejected,  because  it  is  disagreeable;  if  as  use- 
less, it  is  disregarded,  because  nature  strives 
to  perfect  itself,  and  whatever  is  considered 
useless  is  declined  as  a  burden. 

Hence  we  conclude:  Either  every  action 
of  man  is  morally  good,  so  that  it  entails  for 
him  no  responsibility,  because  he  is  free  of 
the  charge  of  wilful  abuse;  or,  man  is  led 
into  evil  against  which  he  has  no  defense; 
or,  lastly,  he  allows  himself  to  be  deceived 
by  the  appearance  of  goodness  which  appeals 
to  the  intellect  through  a  false  friend  or  an 
incompetent  interpreter. 

[51] 


We  know,  however,  that  not  all  human 
acts  are  of  equal  value  —  witness  our  courts 
of  law.  Some  acts  we  praise,  some  we  blame, 
with  satisfaction  to  ourselves.  This  satis- 
faction agrees  either  with  the  nature  of  the 
deed,  or  with  our  view  of  it.  Thus  this 
satisfaction  may  be  just,  but  may  also  be 
unjust,  accordingly  as  our  personal  view 
agrees  or  clashes  with  the  nature  of  the  deed. 
To  be  just,  our  satisfaction  must  proceed 
from  the  same  right  principle  as  the  deed. 

There  must  be  a  rule  to  determine  the  good 
and  the  evil  in  every  deed.  This  must  be 
applied  by  both  the  author  and  by  the  judge 
of  the  deed.  If  one  would  measure  a  deed 
by  one  rule,  and  another  judge  it  by  another, 
the  views  of  the  morality  of  the  deed  would 
differ  as  widely  as  the  respective  rules. 

This  rule  is:  to  do  what  is  good,  and  to 
avoid  what  is  evil. 

Whence,  then,  the  difference  of  views? 
From  the  difference  in  the  perception  of  what 
is  good. 

What  is  good?  Good  is  everything  that 
satisfies  the  orderly  appetite :  orderly  appetite, 
because  a  disordered  or  inordinate  appetite 

[52] 


1 


is  deranged,  and  cannot  tend  toward  the 
perfection  which  nature  seeks:  it  is  very 
prone  to  make  mistakes  satisfying  its  morbid 
cravings,  and  thus  injuring  the  whole. 

Is  man's  appetite  always  well  ordered? 
We  distinguish  intellectual  and  sensitive  appe- 
tite; hence  also  two  categories  of  objects  and 
two  kinds  of  good,  or  goodness. 

The  intellectual  appetite  is  the  will,  the 
sensitive  appetite,  the  feeling. 

The  will  stands  under  the  direction  of 
reason,  feeling  is  in  union  with  the  activity 
of  the  senses.  But  the  intellect  also  depends 
for  much  of  its  material  on  the  activity  of 
the  senses;  hence  there  is  a  field  common  to 
'the  operations  of  sense  and  mind,  where  the 
exchange  is  made  between  the  two  factors 
of  human  life,  animality  and  reason.  This 
market  of  each  single  life  is  the  imagination. 

The  imagination  diversifies  the  minds  in 
this  earthly  condition.  It  makes  genius, 
talent,  disposition  and  character,  but  not  — 
let  me  say  to  the  unwary  —  as  though  the 
imagination  alone  caused  these  diversifications; 
no,  it  is  merely  the  soil  from  which  they 
spring,  as  the  plant  springs  from  the  ground, 

[53] 


n 


but  according  to  the  nature  of  the  seed  planted. 
Many  widely  different  plants  grow  in  the 
same  soil,  and  many  widely  different  mental 
qualities  spring  from  the  imagination.  But 
the  soil  is  equally  capable  of  improvement 
and  impoverishment;  the  plant  may  be  care- 
fully nursed  or  neglected.  Growth  owes  as 
much  to  rain  and  sunshine  as  to  the  soil, 
and  bloom  and  fruit-bearing  owe  still  more 
to  them  than  to  this. 

So  also  in  the  mind  of  man.  The  natural 
intellectual  faculty  is  the  same  in  every 
human  being;  but  being  bound  to  the  service 
of  the  senses,  and  most  closely  to  that  of  the 
imagination,  it  acquires  its  turn  from  these 
sources. 

But  in  the  comparison  of  the  plant  we  have 
to  place  between  soil  and  sunshine  the  object 
of  growth  and  bloom  ;  with  the  mind  there  does 
not  stand  an  object  between  sense  and  reason 
about  the  perfection  of  which  they  would 
busy  themselves.  Hence  the  object  of  the 
contact  of  intelligence  and  sensation  is  not  a 
product  different  from  both,  but,  rather,  a  con- 
dition, which  takes  on  the  nature  of  either 
so  pronouncedly  as  to  dominate  the  other. 

[54] 


Now,  there  is  antagonism  between  the 
senses  and  the  mind.  Sense  seeks  its  own 
gratification  to  the  very  limit  of  its  capacity, 
which  is  surfeit.  This  induces  the  incapacity 
for  cooperation,  at  least  momentarily,  with 
the  remaining  faculties,  and  often  with  reason 
itself.  This  certainly  is  disorder. 

But  this  process  goes  on  from  the  beginning 
under  the  supervision  of  the  mind;  hence, 
if  the  mind  is  off  its  guard,  or  not  ready  to 
put  a  check  on  the  over-reaching  tendencies 
of  sensation,  it  is  itself  at  fault  for  the  disorder, 
and  justly  deserves  the  blame. 

Therefore,  the  agent  or  author  of  a  deed 
or  thought  may  consent  to  satisfaction  accord- 
ing to  a  rule  which  right  reason  cannot 
approve  and  apply.  For  only  that  is  good 
for  man  which  is  sought  for  the  perfection  of 
man;  and  man's  perfection  is  measured  by  the 
nobler  part  that  makes  him  man,  his  reason. 

III.  It  was  stated  above  that  the  result 
of  the  contact  of  intelligence  and  sensation 
(or  the  intercommunication  of  mind  and 
sense)  is  a  condition  taking  on  the  nature 
of  either  so  pronouncedly  as  to  dominate 
the  other. 

[55] 


n 


If  reason  carries  the  day  over  sensation 
on  the  battle-field  of  the  imagination,  the  result 
is  not  disorder,  but  the  establishment  of  the 
master's  authority  over  the  servant.  Reason 
has  an  advantage  over  sensation  in  this  :  that 
it  is  not  determined  to  action  by  every  material 
(single)  object  like  the  senses,  but  has  power 
ta  determine  itself  and  assert  its  independence 
of  agencies  exterior  to  its  own  domain. 

In  explanation  it  may  be  said  that  the 
senses  respond  to  the  presentation  of  their 
respective  objects  as  promptly  as  the  sensitized 
plate  of  the  camera  to  light.  There  is  natural 
necessity  in  this  response,  a  sort  of  coercion. 
But  at  the  same  time  there  is  no  danger  of  a 
mistake,  provided  only  the  organ  be  sound. 

The  intellect  enjoys  more  liberty  of  oper- 
ation, but  is  more  liable  also  to  self-deception. 
And  when  the  intellect  allows  itself  to  be 
deceived,  it  misleads  the  will,  so  that  the 
human  mind,  the  formal  principle  of  human 
acts,  may  be  led,  or  may  allow  itself  to  be 
drawn,  into  error. 

But,  again,  the  senses  are  free  from  error 
only  in  the  act  of  perception;  in  composing 
their  proper  perception  with  other  motions 

[561 


of  the  sensitive  parts,  they,  too,  may  be 
misled  as  to  the  proper,  rational  purpose 
of  the  whole  process,  i.e.,  of  acting  according 
to  human  nature. 

For  example,  the  sight  of  a  beautiful 
woman  produces  at  the  first  moment  a  sense 
of  gratification  identical  with  that  elicited 
by  the  perception  of  the  beautiful  in  any 
object.  But  beauty  awakens  the  desire  of 
enjoyment  and  possession  of  the  object. 
With  many  beautiful  objects,  indeed,  this 
desire  may  easily  be  gratified;  but  in  this 
case  the  desire  of  enjoyment  and  possession 
must  respect  the  various  reasonable  relations 
into  which  woman  is  bound  in  the  human 
family.  If  these  relations  are  disregarded,  and 
the  desire  is  fostered  or  executed,  a  disorder 
results  for  which  not  the  sense  of  sight,  nor 
yet  wholly  the  concupiscence  of  the  flesh, 
but  the  sluggishness  of  the  intellect  is  at 
fault,  in  so  far  as  it  stands  idly  by  when  it 
should  dictate  its  prohibition  of  undue  liberty 
on  the  basis  of  justice  and  reasonable  order. 

Here  the  impression  of  the  beautiful  con- 
nects with  sensation  in  a  forbidden  region, 
without  asking  and  waiting  for  the  decision 

[57] 


n 


of  reason,  and  thus  acquires  strength  enough 
to  draw  reason  into  its  own  disorder,  and  the 
will  into  its  own  mistake. 

The  intellect  does  not  act  automatically 
like  the  senses.  For,  the  intellect  is  not  im- 
pressed by  the  particular  in  objects:  what 
we  understand  of  earthly  things  is  their 
habitude  toward  our  mind.  Thus  the  intellect 
perceives  the  beautiful  in  sound,  color,  figure, 
etc.,  according  to  its  own  perception  (con- 
ception) of  beauty,  whereas  each  element 
must  address  itself  to  a  different  sense: 
sound  to  hearing,  color  and  figure  to  sight, 
etc.  Furthermore,  the  intellect  arranges  the 
various  objects  presenting  themselves  for 
cognition,  and  thus  must  know  them  on  a 
principle  common  to  all  of  the  same  order. 
The  senses  make  no  selection.  Lastly,  the 
intellect  compares  the  idea  perceived  with 
the  laws  of  reason  (its  own  laws),  and  accord- 
ingly retains  or  rejects  ideas,  as  naturally, 
indeed,  correct,  but  as  morally  false  and 
unfit. 

Thus  from  the  impression  of  beauty  in  a 
woman  the  intellect  abstracts  the  idea  of 
beauty  only.  This  it  may  allow  to  react 

[58] 


tit* 


on  the  imagination  and  the  sensitive  parts, 
and  with  this  permission  surrender  its  privilege 
of  authority:  for  imagination  and  sensual 
motion  do  not  abstract  from  the  woman, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  are  very  prone  to 
particularize  about  this  woman. 

Yet  the  intellect,  knowing  and  recognizing 
that  beauty  is  not  the  only  purpose  of  the 
existence  of  woman,  may  also  refer  the  idea 
of  this  beauty  to  the  source  of  all  beauty, 
the  standard  of  all  good,  and  rejoice  in  the 
beauty  of  this  woman  as  in  a  reflection  of 
Beauty  Supreme.  But  it  may  be  deceived 
with  regard  to  the  real  standard  of  the  beauti- 
ful and  good,  and  hence  may  even  now  make 
a  mistake,  grave  in  proportion  as  the  object 
of  its  comparison  is  remote  from  or  dissimilar 
to  the  absolutely  beautiful. 

Hence  the  condition  of  man  exercising 
his  faculties  may  take  on  so  much  of  the 
flesh  as  to  make  his  actions  ruinous  of  their 
true  and  natural  purpose;  or  so  much  of  the 
mind  (reason)  as  to  ennoble  them  with  the 
prerogative  of  liberty  and  independence.  But 
in  either  case  the  decision  lies  with  the  mind 
of  man,  and,  therefore,  in  either  case  he  stands 

[591 


in  ti     ji^laisums  uf 


accountable  for  disorder  as  well  as  for  order 
in  his  life. 

But  this  opens  a  wide  gulf  between  the 
mind  of  man  and  the  instinct  of  the  brute. 
There  is  no  correlation  at  all  between  intelli- 
gence and  instinct,  except  that  instinct  is 
intelligence  reflected  in  the  brute  from  an 
intelligence  exterior  to  and  above  the  brute, 
comprehending  the  whole  purpose  of  nature. 

Hence,  also,  death  means  more  to  man  than 
to  the  brute,  in  proportion  as  life  means  more 
to  him. 


[60] 


3. 


IDEALS  are  the  test  of  character.  Idealism 
consists  in  this,  that  we  involuntarily  compare 
our  experience  with  an  indefinable  standard 
of  beauty  in  our  own  mind,  and  direct 
our  aspirations  toward  unattainable  heights. 
Ideality  is  the  sunshine  of  the  soul. 

Ideals  are  beyond  our  reach;  and  it  is 
good  that  they  be.  For  whatever  man  ca»i 
compass,  assumes  shape  from  his  mode  of 
comprehension,  and  thus  is  rendered  more 
noble  or  less  noble  than  himself  accordingly 
as  it  stands  below  or  above  him  before  it  is 
compassed. 

It  is  the  nature  of  true  ideals  to  stand  above 
the  level  of  things  human,  inasmuch  as  they 
draw  the  intelligence  and  the  will  of  man,  his 
nobler  parts.  But  they  would  not  attract 
these  nobler  powers  unless  they  were  con- 
ceived as  ennobling  and  perfecting  them. 

Hence  ideality,  sought  in  anything  below 
the  level  of  reason,  is  a  perversion  ;  and  ideality 
sought  on  the  same  level  with  reason,  is  a 

[611 


n 


deception.  For  anything  perfectible  is  per- 
fected (brought  to  the  completion  of  its  proper 
act)  by  something  of  a  higher  order  than 
the  thing  to  be  perfected. 

For  instance,  sight  is  perfected  by  color, 
figure,  size  (or  quantity),  and  distance,  but 
especially  and  primarily  by  light.  Light 
acts  in  the  same  manner  on  the  eye  as  on 
the  photographic  plate;  in  fact  it  acts  on 
all  things  in  the  same  manner,  revealing  and 
reproducing  itself  on  susceptible  surfaces  in 
the  object  illumined.  But  in  order  to  repro- 
duce itself  in  the  object  illumined,  light  must 
touch  on  an  impressionable  surface.  This 
surface  is  instantly  changed  into  light,  inas- 
much as  it  may  admit,  receiving  the  impres- 
sions and  figures  carried  over  by  the  light, 
and  turning  from  an  unordered  into  an  ordered, 
or  perfected  surface. 

In  the  eye  the  impressionable  surface  is 
organized;  not  sensitized  only,  but  sensitive, 
part  of  a  living  organ  adapted  to  receive 
and  transform  the  action  of  light,  or,  rather, 
to  be  transformed  by  light  into  the  object 
lighting  up,  changing  from  an  empty  receptacle 
to  a  living  reproduction  of  the  object  presented 

[62] 


under  light.  Now  light,  color,  figure,  distance, 
etc.,  are,  in  relation  to  the  sense  of  sight,  of 
a  higher  order  than  the  blank  retina;  hence 
things  perfectible  are  perfected  by  things  of  a 
higher  order. 

But  here  the  objection  may  be  raised: 
"  Cognitio  fit  secundum  modum  cognoscentis." 
We  know  things  our  own  way,  "  hence  it 
is  false  to  say  that  the  perfecting  object  is 
higher  in  the  order  of  things  than  the  thing 
perfectible;  or,  the  subject  and  the  means  of 
perfection   must   be   in   the   same   order   of 
beings." 

To  this  we  may  answer :  Perfection  may  be 
considered  to  be  twofold;  one  way,  so  as  to 
be  the  natural  complement  of  the  faculties 
to  be  perfected;  another  way,  so  as  to  tend 
beyond  the  natural  capacity  of  these  faculties 
by  elevating  and  sustaining  them  in  a  region 
neither  necessary  nor  opposed  to  their  mode 
of  existence  and  operation. 

Thus  we  distinguish  in  the  act  of  vision  the 
instrument  or  organ,  and  the  sense  of  sight, 
light  and  the  objective  of  light  (the  object 
illumined).  The  instrument  is  the  material 
apparatus  of  vision  considered  by  itself.  As 

[631 


n 


such  it  is  useless,  except  it  be  quickened  by 
life  and  made  to  be  a  quick  organ,  a  sense,  — 
as  we  know  from  considering  the  eyes  of  the 
dead.  The  sense  of  vision,  therefore,  is  the 
eye  together  with  or  informed  by  life. 

Now  light  addresses  itself  to  the  apparatus 
alone;  but  this  apparatus  is  indifferent  in 
itself  to  light  and  darkness:  hence  the  object 
presented  to  it  by  light,  having  figure,  color, 
position,  etc.,  and  not  being  indifferent  to 
what  is  necessary  for  its  existence  and  con- 
stitution, is  ordered,  and  not  as  the  apparatus 
of  vision,  indifferent  and  unordered;  therefore 
of  a  higher  order  of  existence  than  the  eye 
as  the  apparatus  of  vision. 

Visional  perception  and  the  object  perceived 
are  on  a  common  level  only  in  so  far  as  the 
organ  of  sight  reacts  on  the  presentations  of 
light,  by  -reproducing  the  image  of  light. 
But  they  are  disparate  in  this:  (1)  that  the 
mere  organ  is  passive  and  unordered,  whereas 
the  objective  of  light  is  ordered  or  configured, 
and  (2)  that  the  sense  of  sight,  belonging  to 
life,  belongs  to  a  higher  order  of  being  than  the 
objective  of  light,  which  is  ever  material  only. 

The  same  is  true  of  intellectual  perception. 
[641 


For  the  understanding  of  things  the  intellect 
abstracts  the  idea  of  things,  the  element 
common  to  all  of  the  same  order;  but  for 
the  disposition  of  things  perceived,  the  intel- 
lect recurs  on  the  images  as  presented  by  the 
senses,  because  the  senses  present  things  in 
the  manner  that  they  exist  individually, 
and  disposition  can  be  made  only  of  things 
existing  separately. 

Now  by  dispositon  the  intellect  connects 
things  of  various  orders  by  way  of  com- 
parison, disjunction,  superposition.  In  this 
act  it  is  not  proof  against  error  and  self- 
deception,  as  has  been  shown  above;  and  hence 
it  may  place  one  thing  above  another  much 
superior  in  reality,  the  intellect  mistaking, 
not  the  image,  but  the  idea,  its  own  product. 

Thus  one  giving  absolute  devotion  to 
anything  not  agreeing  with  the  idea  of  the 
Deity  —  which  is  that  of  infinite  power  and 
perfection  —  degrades  the  idea  of  God.  This 
error  flows  from  his  attachment  to  the  object  of 
his  veneration,  and  not  from  his  conception 
of  God.  His  error  begins  where  his  knowledge 
begins,  in  the  sensitive  parts,  which  he  let 
slip  from  his  control. 

[65] 


TLift  in  Ht*  j^W&imi  *»£ 

*-  f        * 


The  same  comparison  holds  with  gluttony 
and  all  other  deviations  from  the  rule  of 
right  reason.  It  is  not  the  idea  of  things 
that  causes  perversity  of  action,  but  the 
sensitive  valuation;  for  the  glutton  knows, 
or,  at  least,  may  readily  know,  that  he  is 
doing  wrong  in  indulging  his  appetite  beyond 
the  proper  measure.  He  perceives  food  and 
drink  not  under  the  aspect  of  necessaries, 
but  as  means  of  satisfying  a  disorderly  craving 
for  the  pleasures  of  the  palate,  which  an 
uncontrolled  appetite  prompts  him  to  intensify 
to  very  loathing. 

But  the  same  comparison  holds  also  for 
the  good  that  man  may  accomplish. 

The  intellect,  rightly  instructed  and  not 
in  bondage  to  the  sensitive  appetite,  places 
all  things  in  their  proper  relations.  Thus 
he  who  honors  his  parents,  for  example, 
derives  the  idea  of  honor  from  the  idea  of 
the  Deity  —  if  he  has  not  inherited  it  as  a 
member  of  well-ordered  society  —  for  honor 
supposes  the  acceptance  of  superiority.  But 
there  is  no  superiority  among  men  as  men 
merely.  We  are  equal  as  to  our  being  men. 
Superiority  must  come  by  a  title  higher  than 

[66] 


humanity.  Duty,  gratitude,  affection,  etc., 
are  only  subjective  experiences,  and  duty 
without  authority,  hence  without  superiority, 
is  impossible.  Moreover,  these  titles  are 
so  easily  made  void  either  by  the  perversion 
of  the  children,  or  by  the  degradation  of 
the  parents,  that  they  form  no  unchangeable 
base  for  honor. 

Hence  the  idea  of  honor  is  derived  from 
a  superiority  unchangeable,  which  is  an  attri- 
bute of  the  only  Unchangeable  One,  God. 

The  intellect  compares  the  idea  of  the 
superiority  of  God  with  the  idea  of  superiority 
in  the  parents,  widening  out  the  latter  to 
the  very  infinity  of  the  former:  as  one  may 
indeed  not  fill  a  tumbler  with  the  ocean,  but 
yet  with  a  quantity  of  the  same  water  that 
makes  the  ocean.  The  object  of  the  idea  is 
infinite,  but  its  appropriation  to  the  mind  and 
its  application  are  limited  to  the  capacity  of 
the  subject-  and  the  objects  compared  with 
the  infinite  superiority  of  God.  For  every- 
thing true  partakes  in  its  own  measure  of  the 
infinity  of  God  in  so  far  as  truth  also  is  un- 
changeable and  imperfectible. 

Therefore  ideas  once  conceived  may  elevate 
[671 


n 


the  intellect  beyond  the  proper  field  of  its 
perception,  and  although  "  cognition  does 
take  place  according  to  the  condition  of  him 
who  knows,"  yet  it  is  only  the  act  of  per- 
ception or  cognition  that  proceeds  after  the 
nature  of  the  perceptive  subject.  In  the 
disposition  of  acquired  ideas  the  perceptive 
principle  becomes  itself  an  agent  again,  as 
we  see  in  human  reason,  which  evolves  new 
thoughts  not  at  all  dependent  upon  psycho- 
physical  perception. 

But  it  is  independent  thinking  that  is 
the  mark  of  nobility  and  perfection  in  the 
human  mind,  and  independent  thought  being 
of  a  higher  order  than  the  mere  operation 
of  the  active  intellect,  it  follows  that  also  in 
the  process  of  thinking  the  faculty  of  thought 
is  perfected  by  an  object  of  a  higher  order  than 
itself. 

Faculties  may  be  perfected  in  two  ways: 
(1)  when  they  are  reduced  to  the  act  proper 
to  their  purpose,  (2)  when  they  improve 
on  that  act  by  raising  its  object  to  a  higher 
sphere:  thus  the  object  thrown  on  the  retina 
of  the  eye  is  taken  up  by  the  sense  of  sight 
and  placed  in  correlation  with  other  objects 

(681 


of  sight,  then  compared  and  associated  with 
objects  the  images  of  which  are  stored  in 
the  imagination  (association  of  ideas),  and 
lastly  turned  to  practical  use  by  the  intellect 
after  it  is  divested  of  the  encumbrances  of 
the  material. 

That  the  mind  must  return  to  the  sensitive 
impression,  and  may  allow  itself  to  be  deceived, 
points  to  an  imperfection  not  natural  to  the 
mind,  or,  rather,  to  a  disorder  in  man's  con- 
stitution, a  derangement  of  the  relations 
between  sensitive  and  intellectual  appetite 
and  perception;  but  that  the  mind  may  also 
throw  out  its  ideas  on  the  screen  of  the  very 
infinite  points  to  its  primordial  sovereignty 
over  sense  and  matter,  which  ranges  it  in 
an  order  of  beings  independent  with  a  partici- 
pation in  the  independence  of  God.  This 
is  the  highest  perfection:  To  reach  out  into 
a  flood  of  light  and  beauty,  not  of  the  earth, 
not  born  of  the  senses,  and  to  bathe  in  the 
dawn  of  the  Infinite.  This  is  the  source  of 
the  genius  of  poetry,  art,  and  philosophy,  the 
fountain-head  of  ideality. 

Hence  that  secret,  indefinable  pining  of 
the  soul  for  beauty  unalloyed  is  rendered 

[69] 


n 


definite  in  proportion  as  it  realizes  the  source 
of  all  beauty,  the  standard  of  all  truth,  the 
model  of  all  art,  —  God. 

This  soul  cannot  perish  with  matter; 
it  can  fail,  however,  of  the  accomplishment 
of  its  true  purpose,  happiness  eternal,  the 
most  wonderful  realization  of  its  longing 
and  pining,  if  it  give  itself  into  the  power  of 
the  flesh,  the  pleasures  of  the  senses,  that 
drag  it  down  from  the  heights,  gilded  by 
eternal  light,  to  bury  it  in  the  darkness  of 
an  ignominious  spiritual  death. 


[70] 


4.  ^vntmtl     *oU  mtb 


THIS  subject  must  be  opened  with  a  dis- 
tinction. Spiritual  death  may  overtake  man 
as  such  merely,  i.e.,  man  considered  in  his 
natural  state  as  a  rational  animal;  in  this 
state  spiritual  death  means  the  barrenness 
of  the  soul  (comparable  to  the  "  death  of 
nature"  in  the  cold  season),  a  time  and  con- 
dition of  unfruitfulness  of  intellect  and  will 
practically  equal  to  death.  True,  this  death 
is  death  only  metaphorically,  but  death  never- 
theless, a  numbness  of  mind,  for  it  is  the  only 
natural  death  a  spirit  can  die. 

Again,  spiritual  death  may  overtake  the 
soul  of  man  according  to  that  supernatural 
life,  of  which  we  know  only  by  divine  reve- 
lation, but  which  we  would  sigh  for,  were  it 
not  promised  us,  and,  under  certain  conditions, 
assured.  It  is  the  life  in  the  everlasting 
glory  of  God. 

Lastly,  spiritual  death  may  overtake  man 
in  that  condition  by  which  his  life  reaches 
out  into  the  Infinite,  not  so  much  intellectually 

[71] 


in  it*  jl>lm&0iti  0f  pr alii 

*  *  * 

as  by  a  gratuitous  elevation  of  the  soul  to 
an  order  of  existence  established  on  the  love 
of  Goodness  Supreme.  From  this  order,  too, 
he  may  fall,  and  actually  falls,  in  the  same 
manner  as  he  falls  from  intellectual  inde- 
pendence, by  becoming  enslaved  in  the  service 
of  the  sensitive  appetite. 

Man  may  know  God  without  loving  him, 
but  only  then  when  his  knowledge  is  domi- 
nated by  sensitive  encroachment  on  the 
mind.  Still,  even  the  love  resulting  from 
purely  intellectual  apperception  must  not 
be  mistaken  for  the  life-giving  love  of  grace. 
The  Infinite  and  the  finite  are  so  widely 
separated  that  the  connecting  bridge  cannot 
be  built  by  throwing  it  upward  from  the  earth; 
it  must  bend  earthward  from  heaven.  Man 
could  never  touch  God,  but  God  can  touch 
man;  the  earth  cannot  rise  to  heaven  unless 
heaven  stoop  down. 

It  is  evident  enough  from  the  preceding 
considerations  that  the  condition  of  this 
world  cries  out  for  a  supreme  Maker  and 
Ruler.  It  is  evident  also  that  any  relation, 
besides  the  relation  of  creature  to  Creator, 
to  be  established  between  God  and  man,  must 

[721 


proceed  from  above.  Hence,  if  we  find  any 
relations  between  God  and  man,  above  the 
relation  of  the  maker  to  his  handiwork,  it 
must  be  introduced  by  God. 

Now  our  consideration  of  the  insufficiency 
of  man  in  the  exercise  of  his  natural  faculties 
convinces  us  that  man  is  no  longer  in  the 
state  of  original  perfection,  whether  this  was 
concreated  with  or  only  added  over  and  above 
his  natural  constitution. 

We  would,  therefore,  conclude  (1)  that  man 
is  a  fallen  creature,  (2)  that  he  is  fallen  from 
a  perfection  not  only  perfecting  his  will  and 
intelligence  in  the  natural  order,  but  also 
elevating  them  to  an  order  of  supernatural 
existence,  toward  which  even  now  his  yearn- 
ings, in  the  train  of  a  well-ordered  intelligence, 
direct  and  draw  him  without  ceasing. 

The  shortcomings  of  us  all,  the  constant 
struggle  for  independence,  light,  and  liberty, 
the  rise  and  fall  of  nations,  cannot  be  explained 
except  under  the  supposition  that  the  human 
race  was  originally  destined  for  a  purpose, 
toward  which  the  way  has  been  blocked 
by  the  wreckage  of  a  fall  in  the  beginning 
from  an  estate  as  high  as  this  purpose:  the 
[731 


n 


view  has  been  obscured  by  the  fume  and 
frenzy  of  the  battle  raging  between  reason 
and  concupiscence,  and  the  way  is  lost  in 
the  darkness  of  the  estrangement  from  God. 

The  best  of  us  realize  in  proportion  to  our 
sincerity  that  we  long  for  enduring  happiness, 
pure  joys,  eternal  life,  and  abundant  bliss. 
It  is  not  happiness  alone  that  we  crave;  it  is 
true,  unchangeable,  and  complete  happiness; 
that  bliss  which  leaves  nothing  to  desire,  no 
voids  to  fill. 

Yet  if  we  take  life  as  it  is,  it  offers  nothing 
beyond  what  is  perishable,  transient,  in- 
sufficient, vain;  and  this  despite  the  fact 
that  we  feel  the  breath  of  the  Infinite  and 
Eternal  blowing  in  on  heart  and  soul.  Whence 
else  this  longing,  void  and  vain  and  trouble- 
some, but  for  the  reality  of  its  object  and  the 
possibility  of  its  satisfaction? 

There  is  a  region,  then,  to  which  man  must 
be  elevated  by  supernal  powers,  in  order  to 
find  security  for  the  hope  of  ultimate  peace; 
a  region  in  which  the  soul  must  be  sustained 
by  a  life  higher  than  its  natural  spirit-life; 
a  realm  of  goodness,  beauty,  and  perfection, 
the  halo  about  his  destiny,  the  realm  of  grace, 

[741 


the  region  about  the  throne  of  God.  Unfetter 
the  mind,  and  it  will  rise  and  dwell  aloft; 
strike  off  the  shackles  of  bondage  to  the  flesh, 
and  the  spirit  will  seek  liberty,  the  liberty 
of  the  children  of  light,  the  liberty  wherewith 
God  shall  make  us  free. 

But  the  unfettering  is  not  easy.  By  con- 
stant wearing  man  may  become  as  much 
accustomed  to  fetters  as  to  a  plaster  on  a 
wound.  Removing  them  seems  painful,  if 
not  dangerous.  Habits  become  a  second 
nature  —  and  concupiscence  is  so  natural  a 
habit  of  man.  There  are  those  who  think 
a  man  less  human  for  not  failing  as  they 
do  themselves,  who  consider  the  flesh  their 
only  cup  of  bliss,  and  are  plunged  into  the 
depth  of  unhappiness  and  despair  when  their 
cup  runs  dry.  Such  are  dead. 

The  worm  that  digs  its  habitation  in 
moldy  soil  and  creeps  about  rottenness  in 
search  of  food  dries  up  and  dies  in  the  warmth 
and  light  of  the  sun.  Even  if  the  worm  had 
sense,  it  would  not  appreciate  the  glory  of 
light  and  the  joy  of  air;  its  place  is  amid 
darkness  and  death.  It  is  a  scavenger  with 
no  mission  other  than  to  eat  and  die.  Its 

[751 


tt 


life  is  bedded  in  the  cradle  of  death,  is  part 
of  death,  destructive,  transitory,  without  a 
purpose  but  that  of  serving  in  the  train  of 
death. 

The  eagle  bathing  in  the  sun,  reveling  in 
the  immense  flood  of  light  and  life  far  above 
the  toils  and  troubles  of  the  throngs,  thrives 
on  liberty  and  thrones  on  light. 

In  the  nature  of  man,  worm  and  eagle  are 
made  fellows;  a  gruesome  combination,  and 
very  humiliating  to  contemplate;  but  true. 

What  the  sotten  drunkard  is,  I  might  be; 
what  the  rottening  lustling,  I;  what  the 
rabid  murderer,  the  ugly  miser,  the  filthy 
sluggard,  the  insane  hater,  the  hideous  blas- 
phemer, I.  And  if  I  am  not,  is  it  because 
the  clay  is  nobler,  of  which  I  am  molded, 
or  my  surroundings  more  refined,  my  asso- 
ciations more  select? 

But  there  are  drunkards  among  lords, 
lustlings  among  the  refined,  murderers  among 
the  educated,  thieves  among  the  proud, 
sluggards  among  the  ambitious,  haters  among 
the  best,  blasphemers  everywhere:  whence 
the  difference? 

The  pure  we  find  brothers  and  sisters  to 
[76] 


the  lewd,  the  temperate  to  the  gluttonous,  the 
upright  to  hypocrites,  the  honest  to  thieves;  as 
roses  among  thorns,  flowers  among  rubbish, 
life  amid  death,  a  true  survival  of  the  truly 
fit:  whence  the  difference? 

Why  do  you  glory  in  the  purity  of  heart 
and  hand  at  which  your  brother  sneers? 

Why  can  you  look  into  a  heaven  of  inno- 
cence through  the  eyes  of  a  child,  when  your 
brother  finds  nothing  there  as  long  as  they 
are  pure? 

Are  you  one  of  the  elect,  and  he  a  castaway? 
For  what?  Who  made  the  selection?  Did 
he  inherit  a  taint  that  poisoned  his  heart's 
depth,  and  you  remain  free?  Is  he  a 
dyspeptic?  But  not  all  dyspeptics  are  insane 
with  the  insanity  of  uncontrollable  anger, 
lust,  greed,  etc.  Is  he  mentally  unsound? 
Then  all  who  yield  to  passion  are  mentally 
unsound,  and  impulse  and  passion  must 
have  free  sway.  There  are  no  laws  for  the 
unfortunate  insane.  But  is  it  possible  that 
half  the  world,  or  more,  should  be  insane! 

It  is  true,  there  have  been  centuries  of 
mental  disease  spread  over  whole  nations, 
periods  of  epidemic  frenzy  and  error:  witness 

[771 


rf* 

<i£ 


the  Flagellantes,  the  religious  revolution  in 
Germany  in  the  sixteenth  and  the  political 
and  social  revolution  in  France  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  But  in  these 
periods,  frenzy  seized  upon  all  the  minds  in 
the  same  manner. 

Men  have  been  known  at  various  times  to 
suffer  from  uncontrollable  impulses  —  and 
have  been  pronounced  maniacs;  men  have 
been  known  to  indulge  strong  impulses  volun- 
tarily —  and  have  been  called  fanatics;  men 
are  even  now  known  to  be  suffering  from 
"compulsory  notions":  but  how  readily  the 
physician  distinguishes  a  "  notion"  from 
mania,  fanaticism  from  insanity,  nervous 
from  mental  disorders,  and  moral  depravity 
from  mental  disturbances!  The  jurist  also 
draws  the  lines  of  demarcation  very  closely 
on  wilful  perversity  as  against  physical  im- 
pairment. 

If  we  look  close  into  the  history  of  the 
epidemics  of  mental  derangement,  we  find 
so  many  free  causes  that  their  enumeration 
according  to  importance  is  very  difficult. 
The  French  Revolution,  for  instance,  that 
period  of  inhuman  frenzy,  was  prepared 

[78] 


principally  by  the  waning  of  the  popular 
respect  for  the  constituted  authorities,  secular 
and  ecclesiastical.  This  decline  was  brought 
about  chiefly  through  the  profligacy  of  the 
nobles,  the  lewdness  of  the  royal  court,  oppres- 
sion, and  the  insidious  doctrines  promulgated 
by  the  Encyclopaedists.  The  revolution  burst 
out  like  a  volcano;  it  " happened"  like  an 
explosion,  to  ease  the  tension  of  the  land,  and 
then  to  cast  its  vomit  abroad  and  inundate 
the  world  with  the  flood  of  its  deadly  poison. 

No  individual  was  compelled  to  rebel; 
but  once  that  a  dam  breaks,  the  waters  will 
out  to  the  slimy  bottom.  Such  violent  eruc- 
tions  from  the  depths  of  our  nature  bode 
no  good.  The  benefits  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment and  popular  representation,  which 
that  upheaval  is  claimed  to  have  wrought 
for  civilization,  do  not  at  all  stand  in  pro- 
portion to  the  stain  wherewith  it  soiled  the 
human  character,  and,  besides,  could  and 
would  have  been  wrought  a  few  centuries 
earlier,  had  justice  instead  of  petticoats  ruled 
the  land. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  certain  periods  of 
history  are  inaugurated,  as  it  were,  by  periodi- 

[791 


n 


cal  necessities,  the  race  taking  a  stride  forward 
through  a  storm.  Common  sense  is  by  far 
more  productive  of  real  advancement  than 
violence. 

"  Wo  rohe  Kraefte  sinnlos  walten, 
Da  kann  each  kein  Gebild  gestalten." 

—  Schitter. 

These  "  periodical  necessities"  are  a  national 
cry  of  pain,  like  the  cry  of  one  suffering 
from  boils  and  tumors:  the  surgeon's  scalpel 
may  relieve  him;  but  had  he  not  contracted 
his  ills  (or  inherited,  perhaps)  through  reckless 
abuse,  or  through  the  neglect  of  his  health 
and  comfort,  he  would  not  stand  in  need  of 
such  violent  aid.  Every  historical  record 
of  national  upheavals  is  the  receipt"  for  a 
doctor's  services,  or  the  express  acknowledg- 
ment of  a  chastisement  duly  executed.  Evils 
are  not  born;  they  grow  by  the  destruction 
of  the  good. 

Hence  evil  tendencies,  even  among  peoples, 
can  be  prevented,  checked,  or  eradicated;  and 
why  not  in  the  individual?  If  we  discard 
mental  diseases  as  the  result  of  diseased 
brains  from  our  figuring,  we  may  safely 
maintain  that  evil  impulses,  "compulsory 

[801 


n&l  50**ii!t  mtfr 


notions,"  and  human  passions  are  the  results 
of  neglect  rather  than  of  positive  agencies, 
for  man  must  stand  above,  and  not  beneath, 
the  powers  that  strive  to  work  his  ruin. 

But  because  evil  insinuates  itself  amid 
our  labor  in  the  guise  of  good  and  thus 
parleys  with  reason  at  the  moment  of  decision 
for  a  truce,  it  is  so  difficult  for  us  to  check 
evil  inclinations.  It  is  impossible  for  man  to 
decline  all  evil  influences  all  the  time,  partly 
for  lack  of  endurance  in  the  mind  in  the 
incessant  conflicts,  partly  for  want  of  energy 
and  watchfulness  to  call  upon  against  the 
blandishments  of  concupiscence  entrenched 
in  our  warm  life-blood. 

And  yet  we  feel,  more  than  we  may  wish 
to  acknowledge,  that  it  is  a  blotch  on  the  fair 
image  of  God  to  be  conquered  by  the  flattery 
and  allurements  of  the  lower  appetite :  Is  there 
no  redemption  from  this  disgraceful  bondage? 

Paul  of  Tarsus,  the  light-bearer  of  the 
Christian  faith,  expressed  his  loathing  of 
our  natural  disgrace  very  tersely:  "Who  shall 
deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death?" 
(Rom.  vii.  24.) 

If  there  is  no  redemption,  man's  life  is 
[81] 


in  tlj*  ^8»  Jtaitmti 


vain.  But  there  must  be  redemption!  There 
must  be  a  way  of  reestablishing  the  harmony 
of  human  nature. 

There  is  —  through  labor. 

Two  elements  must  be  considered  in  the 
redemption  of  man:  (1)  Reason  and  con- 
cupiscence must  be  brought  into  their  proper 
relation;  and  this  is  accomplished  more  readily 
by  practise  than  by  speculation.  (2)  Human 
life  must  be  ordered  and  directed  toward  its 
proper  purpose,  a  purpose  comprising  the 
activity  of  both  senses  and  intelligence; 
and  this  is  accomplished  (a)  through  the 
secure  knowledge  of  his  destiny;  (b)  through 
the  power  to  rise  above  the  merely  earthly 
requirements  of  life. 

These  two  elements  are  not  only  not 
independent  of  each  other,  but  are  so  inti- 
mately united  and  interwoven  that  they  can- 
not be  separated  at  any  definite  point. 

We  have  seen  above  that  human  intelli- 
gence reaches  out  to  the  Infinite  in  as  far  as 
it  grasps  truth,  which  is  a  participation  in 
man  of  the  character  of  the  Infinite;  hence 
the  mind,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  reaches 
out  to  God. 

[82] 


Reason  easily  learns,  by  the  experience  of 
the  fickleness  and  insufficiency  of  sensual 
and  sensitive  enjoyment,  that  it  must  free 
itself  from  the  slavery  of  the  senses:  witness 
the  Stoics  in  proof.  If  a  man  fails  to  learn 
this  lesson,  he  fails  only  because  he  sup- 
presses the  natural  activity  of  his  mind, 
and  stifles  the  voice  of  his  heart  crying  out 
for  happiness  realizable  only  in  ideals,  the 
reflection  of  the  Light  of  God. 

But  as  man  is  not  born  a  sage,  but  an 
infant  helpless  and  ignorant,  he  must  learn 
to  wrestle  before  he  is  required  to  go  forth 
to  the  combat.  To  train  him  is  the  office 
of  those  in  whose  care  lie  his  infancy  and 
youth.  The  scarred  warriors  of  many  con- 
tests know  that  the  battle-field  is  not  a 
place  for  the  distinction  of  a  recruit. 

Skill  and  alertness  are  the  equipment  of 
courage.  An  imprudent  soldier,  and  one 
unskilled  in  the  use  of  arms,  may  do  more 
harm  than  good  to  himself  and  to  the  army, 
despite  his  courage  and  valor.  Valor  is 
born,  but  skill  is  acquired. 

Thus  must  the  mind  of  the  young  be  imbued 
with  certain  knowledge  of  the  end  of  human 

[83] 


n 


existence,  its  perils,  its  struggles,  its  oppor- 
tunities, it  vicissitudes.  Such  knowledge,  and 
the  wise  practise  thereof  under  experienced 
guides,  cannot  but  facilitate  the  orderly 
arrangement  of  the  higher  over  the  lower 
parts  of  our  nature. 

But  the  instruction  of  the  intellect  alone 
is  inefficient  as  a  means  of  training.  Sun- 
light does  not  produce  life  in  dead  wood. 
The  root  of  all  human  actions  is  in  the  heart, 
in  the  will.  There  must  be  very  much  life 
in  the  soul  for  the  light  of  instruction  to 
produce  the  steady  growth,  the  formation 
of  character,  the  coloring  of  good-nature, 
the  fruit  of  unselfish  labor. 

The  natural  life  of  the  soul,  comparable 
to  the  life  in  the  plant,  is  the  will.  But  the 
will  is  linked,  as  to  the  intellect,  so  to  the 
lower  appetite,  which  lusts  against  the  spirit  — 
as  man  may  experience  every  day.  Hence  in 
training  man,  especially  the  young,  the  master 
must  endeavor  to  exercise  the  will  in  the  con- 
test with  concupiscence,  so  as  to  make  the 
will  by  degrees  the  sole  arbiter  of  activity. 

Still,  as  the  will  is  only  a  natural  faculty, 
and  for  this  reason  insufficient  alone  to 

[841 


elevate  human  actions  to  the  level  of  human 
destiny,  perceived  by  the  intellect  as  reaching 
over  into  eternity  and  drawing  him  into 
communion  with  God,  man  must  be  assisted 
by  God  in  such  a  manner  and  with  such 
powers  as  to  raise  him  to  the  participation  of 
the  power  of  God:  as  the  material  elements 
of  living  beings  are  drawn  into  the  operation 
of  life  in  order  to  be  made  living  matter. 

This  union  need  not  be  substantial  between 
God  and  man,  as  it  cannot  be,  because  sub- 
stantial union  would  destroy  individuality. 
The  conception  of  God  as  the  cause  of  all 
being,  infinite  and  eternal,  militates  against 
a  substantial  union  with  being  reflected, 
finite,  relative,  as  is  the  existence  of  man, 
unless  we  sacrifice  the  individuality  of  the 
man  so  united,  and  surrender  the  nature 
of  the  man  to  the  person  of  God.  But  it 
is  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  man's  redemp- 
tion from  his  natural  infirmity  that  this 
union  be  cooperative,  or  a  union  of  operation. 

Had  divine  revelation  not  assured  us  of 
this  union  of  grace,  our  reason  should  demand 
it  as  the  necessary  complement  and  perfection 
of  our  nature  as  it  stands  now,  dethroned 

[85] 


n 


from  its  pristine  glory,  between  life  and  death, 
time  and  eternity. 

Everyone  outside  this  union  of  grace  is 
dead  with  a  death  so  much  the  more  calami- 
tous as  it  renders  both  life  profitless  and  the 
attainment  of  its  end  impossible. 

It  must  be  said,  too,  that  the  real  intellectual 
life  or  natural  independence  of  man  is  so 
closely  bound  to  his  life  in  God,  the  life  of 
grace  (by  the  favor  of  God),  that  the  sub- 
mission of  the  sensual  appetite  to  the  rule 
of  right  reason  cannot  be  induced  and  main- 
tamed  without  the  influx  of  the  light  and 
strength  of  God.  Our  natural  powers  are 
not  only  incompetent  in  themselves  to  attain 
our  supernatural  end,  but  also  unable  to 
endow  themselves  with  light  undimmed  and 
strength  unfaltering;  and  the  value  of  their 
acts  is  not  so  great  as  to  merit  supernatural 
reward. 

Hence  we  conclude:  (1)  In  man  we  must 
distinguish  a  twofold  spiritual  life,  the 
natural  life  of  the  soul  by  intellect  and  will, 
and  the  life  of  grace.  The  latter  connects 
our  earthly  existence  with  our  last  end,  the 
former  dominates  over  our  earthly  existence 

[86] 


mt& 


as  rational  beings.  This  is  natural,  the  other, 
supernatural  life.  When  reason  is  made  the 
toy  of  sensuality,  man  is  virtually  dead;  for 
man  can  truly  live  only  as  man,  that  is,  as 
a  rational  animal.  If  his  life  does  not  rise 
superior  to  the  exactions  of  the  animal  part 
of  his  nature,  he  does  not  live  by  the  mind, 
and  is  in  this  not  the  better  of  the  brute. 
As  man  he  is  dead.  (2)  Although  man  was 
destined  originally,  and  now  pines  for  the 
union  with  Goodness  and  Truth  Supreme,  still, 
in  order  to  attain  this  end,  his  natural  facul- 
ties and  their  works  must  be  elevated  to  the 
supernatural  order;  for  in  order  to  weld  one 
piece  of  steel  to  another,  both  must  be  hot. 
But  the  fire  that  prepares  man  for  the  weld- 
ing is  the  love  of  God,  as  proceeding  from 
God,  and,  firing  up  the  soul,  drawing  it  into 
the  most  intimate  union  with  God,  so  as  to 
render  its  operations  in  a  manner  divine. 

If  we  could  separate  the  earthly  existence 
of  man  from  his  eternal  destiny,  we  might  be 
allowed  to  think  that  man  can  redeem  him- 
self with  a  natural  redemption,  or  deliver 
himself  from  the  incursions  of  the  flesh  and 
the  world  by  ordering  his  appetite  on  the 

[87] 


in  tttt  ^Imfrmtf  0f  -Dm  Hi 

i  »  > 

principles  of  right  reason.  This  would  indeed 
be  a  life  worthy  of  a  rational  being,  so  con- 
stituted that  it  could  understand  the  world 
in  its  own  way  without  knowing  anything  of 
God.  But  under  this  supposition  even,  man's 
lower  parts  could  not  be  supposed  to  be  in 
rebellion  against  his  nobler  self. 

But  we  have,  on  the  one  hand,  the  indi- 
cations of  a  fatal  wound  in  every  part  of 
our  nature,  the  lusting  of  the  flesh  against 
the  spirit,  and,  on  the  other,  the  view  of  the 
Infinite  spread  before  our  sight.  Our  mind 
commands  a  potency  far  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  mere  natural  definition  of  intelligence, 
i.e.,  self-reading,  consciousness  of  self,  self- 
inspection.  It  is  capable  of  conceptions  be- 
yond the  pale  of  actual  experience,  it  hears 
the  echoes  of  a  lost  paradise,  it  sees  the 
flashes  of  the  even-light  of  heaven.  It  peers 
with  terror  into  the  darkness  of  existence 
beyond  the  grave,  it  revels  with  the  pure 
in  delights  not  born  of  sense,  it  becomes 
intoxicated  with  the  fragrance  blowing  in 
from  a  closed  garden,  it  is  made  drunk  of  the 
waters  of  a  sealed  well:  there  is  a  premonition 
of  angelic  friendship  in  our  love,  a  foretaste 

[881 


of  the  bliss  of  the  beatific  vision  in  our 
sacrifices. 

This  contrast  between  concupiscence  and 
spiritual  independence  points  out  the  neces- 
sity of  a  mediator  between  our  actual  pres- 
ent condition  and  our  proposed  destination. 
Without  religion,  the  binding  of  man  to  God, 
we  cannot  understand  the  purpose  for  which 
man  was  placed  on  this  earth. 

The  mediator  is  Christ,  redemption  is 
made  by  His  sacrifice,  and  deliverance  for 
each  of  us  by  our  union  with  Him  through 
His  grace.  In  Him  man  has  found  life 
again,  and  resurrection. 

The  life  that  He  proposes  is  the  true  life 
of  man  fallen  from  his  original  integrity  and 
justice.  It  alone  can  make  the  earth  a  para- 
dise and  heaven  a  certainty  for  every  man. 
Hence  the  life  of  a  Christian,  a  spiritual  life, 
is  the  only  life  worth  living. 


89 


THE  foundation  of  all  Christian  life  is  faith. 
The  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  makes  of  the  man  a 
Christian.  But  the  double  source  of  which 
the  water  "that  I  will  give  him  shall  become 
in  him  a  fountain  of  water  springing  up  into 
life  everlasting"  (John  iv.  14)  is  grace  and 
instruction. 

Whether  instruction  come  to  the  soul  as  a 
supernatural  enlightenment,  or  as  knowledge 
acquired  by  diligent  and  patient  search  into 
the  depths  of  the  truths  of  salvation,  the  soul 
hath  need  of  a  teacher  in  the  school  of  piety. 

Many  saints  of  God  had  indeed  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  way  of  salvation,  which  they 
had  not  acquired  from  books,  but  rather  drunk 
from  the  eloquent  lips  and  enkindled  hearts 
of  other  virtuous  men;  others  were  made 
masters  in  the  school  of  sanctity  through  the 
secret  influence  of  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 

[911 


n 


i\\t 

# 


drawing  them  deeper  into  the  mysteries  of  the 
faith  in  contemplation,  and  shaping  their 
minds  after  the  pattern  of  the  Apostles  and  the 
first  Christians  on  and  after  the  first  Pente- 
cost. But  the  greater  number  of  the  elect  of 
Christ  have  plodded  the  weary  way  of  the 
Cross  by  the  constant  practise  of  self-denial 
and  the  untiring  striving  after  perfection 
through  the  love  of  God,  according  to  the 
direction  of  the  Gospel.  The  fountains  of  life 
for  them  have  ever  been  the  living  streams 
of  truth  issuing  forth  from  the  Sacred  Magis- 
terium  (the  teaching  authority)  of  the  Church. 

And  this  is  in  accord  with  the  command  of 
our  divine  Teacher  and  Master,  who,  when  He 
sent  forth  His  Apostles  upon  the  mission 
inheriting  from  Him,  enjoined  upon  them  to 
"preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature"  (Mark 
xvi.  15);  and  again,  "Going  forth,  therefore, 
teach  ye  all  nations,  baptizing  them."  (Matt. 
xxviii.  19.)  And  St.  Paul  says:  "How  then 
shall  they  call  on  him,  in  whom  they  have  not 
believed?  Or  how  shall  they  believe  him,  of 
whom  they  have  not  heard?  And  how  shall 
they  hear  without  a  preacher?"  (Rom.  x.  14.) 

Instruction,  therefore,  in  divine  things  is  the 
1921 


material  basis  of  faith.  "For  the  Lord  fol- 
lows His  preachers :  because  first  comes  preach- 
ing, and  then  the  Lord  comes  to  dwell  in  our 
mind,  the  words  of  exhortation  having  pre- 
ceded, and  thus  the  truth  having  been  con- 
ceived in  the  mind."  (St.  Gregory,  the  Pope, 
Horn.  17,  in  Evang.) 

Instruction  in  divine  things  may  aptly  be 
compared  to  stones  which  are  quarried  and 
cut,  ready  for  the  builder;  but  they  are  only 
the  material  for  the  building:  so  also  faith 
alone,  i.e.,  the  accepting  of  supernatural  truth 
on  the  authority  of  God  and  the  Church, 
is  not  the  edifice  of  sanctity,  nor  the  sum 
of  Christian  life.  For  as  St.  James  hath 
it,  "The  demons  also  believe,  and  tremble." 
(ii.  19.) 

Faith  must  flow  with  its  entire  abundance 
of  light  and  warmth  into  every  action  of  the 
Christian,  as  St.  Paul  describes:  "But  my 
just  man  liveth  by  faith."  (Heb.  x.  38.) 
Faith  must  guide  our  understanding  and  our 
will,  and  be  the  unswerving  rule  of  our  work 
and  prayer;  faith  must  be  operative,  for 
"faith  without  works  is  dead."  (James  ii.  26.) 

Concerning  faith,  then,  we  must  first  bear 
[93] 


n 


in  mind  the  two  practical  views  which  it 
presents  to  the  upright  Christian,  that  is,  first, 
the  act  of  faith,  and  second,  the  works  of 
faith. 

The  act  of  faith  consists  in  the  God-given 
assent  of  the  mind  to  divine  truth.  This  act 
is  meritorious,  principally  by  the  grace  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  enlightening  the  understanding 
and  moving  the  will  to  accept  the  divine 
truths;  and,  secondarily,  by  the  voluntary 
submission  of  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  be- 
liever to  the  sovereign  authority  and  veracity 
of  God.  Therefore  St.  Paul  calls  the  sancti- 
fied life  of  the  Christian  a  "  reasonable  service:" 
"I  beseech  you,  therefore,  brethren,  by  the 
mercy  of  God,  that  you  present  your  bodies  a 
living  sacrifice,  holy,  pleasing  unto  God,  your 
reasonable  service"  (Rom.  xii.  1);  not  indeed, 
as  if  sanctification  by  faith  were  wrought  less 
by  the  grace  of  God,  but  because  it  is  wrought 
also  by  our  cooperation. 

The  act  of  faith  blooms  forth  as  a  flower 
from  the  Vine,  which  is  Christ;  but  the  works 
of  faith  grow  from  the  flower  of  grace,  and 
ripen  like  unto  the  fruit:  "You  have  not 
chosen  me,  but  I  have  chosen  you,  and  have 

[94] 


appointed  you,  that  you  should  go  and  should 
bring  forth  fruit,  and  your  fruit  should  remain" 
(John  xv.  16):"  for  without  me  you  can  do 
nothing"  (ib.  xv.  5). 

In  faith,  therefore,  we  observe  three  stages: 
first,  the  divine  virtue  of  faith  infused  in 
baptism;  second,  the  moral  virtue,  or  the  act 
of  faith,  elicited  with  the  assistance  of  divine 
grace,  by  the  reason  and  the  will  of  man;  and 
third,  the  works  of  faith,  accomplished  by  the 
application  of  the  directions  which  faith  gives, 
to  our  daily  occupations,  and  the  ordering  of 
our  lives. 

The  foundation  of  Christian  life,  then,  is 
built  in  this  way:  the  material  is  gathered 
and  prepared  through  information,  ordinarily 
obtained  by  oral  instruction;  it  is  put  in 
order  for  its  purpose  and  cemented  by  sancti- 
fying grace,  which  disposes  the  soul  for  its 
eternal  destiny,  the  union  with  God. 

Upon  this  foundation  we  must  rear  with 
patience  and  perseverance  the  edifice  of  a 
holy  life,  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In 
as  much  as  a  builder  deviates  in  the  erection  of 
the  superstructure  from  the  lines  of  the  foun- 
dation, in  so  much  he  endangers  the  stability 

[95] 


in  Ut*  ^Ju^utti  u£ 


of  the  whole  building;  thus,  also,  in  as  much  as 
the  Christian  haply  neglects  the  directions  of 
his  faith,  in  so  much  he  would  "build  upon  the 
sand,  and  his  house  would  fall,  and  the  ruin 
would  be  great." 

Or,  to  apply  the  figure  of  Jesus  Christ: 
"Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you.  As  the  branch 
cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself,  unless  it  abide  in  the 
vine,  so  neither  can  you,  unless  you  abide  in 
me.  I  am  the  vine;  you  the  branches:  he 
that  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same 
beareth  much  fruit:  for  without  me  you  can 
do  nothing.  If  anyone  abide  not  in  me,  he 
shall  be  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and  shall 
wither,  and  they  shall  gather  him  up,  and 
cast  him  into  the  fire,  and  he  burneth." 
(John  xv.  4-6.) 

Now,  we  know  that  we  abide  in  Him  by 
charity,  which  is  sanctifying  grace  carried  into 
practise.  But  in  order  that  we  may  realize 
our  union  with  Him,  we  must  know  Him; 
and  in  order  to  preserve  this  union,  we  must 
know  and  do  His  will.  This  knowledge  both 
of  Him  and  His  bidding  is  imparted  to  us  by 
faith. 

The  good-will  and  strength  necessary  for 
[96] 


the  practise  of  our  faith  are  accorded  us 
through  the  life-giving  influence  of  His  grace. 
The  ordinary  channels  of  His  grace  are  the 
sacraments.  Grace  indeed  is  a  free  gift  of 
God;  so  much  so  that  we  cannot  even  pray 
without  grace:  "we  know  not  what  we  shall 
pray  for  as  we  ought."  (Rom.  viii.  26.)  And 
yet,  with  the  assistance  of  grace,  we  can  by 
prayer  obtain  an  increase  of  grace,  which  will 
ever  draw  us  into  closer  union  with  the  life  of 
the  Vine.  The  effect  of  this  intercommunion 
is  holiness.  The  fountainhead  from  which  the 
life  of  Christ  flows  into  the  soul  is  charity, 
or  the  active  love  of  God. 

This  love  of  God  is  at  the  same  time  the 
food  and  the  hunger  of  the  soul.  It  is  a 
living  thing,  that  must  be  nourished,  lest  it 
die;  and  it  is  nourished  by  the  acts  of  love, 
which  underlie,  or  direct  all  our  actions  and 
intentions:  like  our  bodily  life  and  health, 
which  waxes  stronger  through  its  own  activity. 

Hence  whatever  we  do,  unless  we  do  it  for 
the  love  of  God,  directly  or  indirectly,  is 
fruitless;  because  the  branch  that  is  not 
nourished  by  the  life  of  the  vine  withers  and 
brings  forth  neither  flowers  nor  fruit. 
[97] 


n 


titt 

* 


This  love  of  God  must  be  affectionate  on 
our  part,  as  it  is  abundant  on  the  part  of  God. 
A  cool,  reasoning  appreciation  of  God's  great- 
ness and  goodness  and  sanctity  is  not  a  work- 
ing love:  The  knowledge  that  fire  gives  light 
and  warmth  does  neither  protect  against 
cold  nor  dispel  darkness;  this  knowledge  must 
become  practical  in  the  proper  direction  in 
order  to  be  of  avail. 

God's  love  toward  man  is  absolutely  pure, 
because  it  is  free  from  the  alloy  of  passion- 
ateness  and  sensibility.  For  although  man 
must  employ  his  sensitive  parts  and  mental 
susceptibilities  in  the  exercise  even  of  his 
supreme  faculties,  he  being  a  substantial  com- 
posite of  mind  and  matter;  yet  God,  who  not 
only  possesses  as  qualities  and  faculties,  but 
is  in  His  very  substance,  all  the  perfections 
attributable  to  the  Infinite  Cause  of  all 
things,  is  not  only  holy,  but  Holiness  in  very 
person;  not  only  merciful,  but  boundless 
Mercy;  not  only  good,  but  Supreme  Good- 
ness. God  not  only  loves,  but  is  the  Ocean 
of  Love,  from  whom  love  wells  over  into  His 
creation. 

The  love  of  man  compared  to  the  love  of 
[98] 


God  is  as  man  compared  to  God:  man  is 
nothing  without  God,  and  still,  the  image  of 
God;  so  also  man's  love,  unless  it  be  referred 
to  God,  is  not  love  at  all;  but  in  its  proper 
relation  to  God,  it  is  worth  so  much  that  God 
even  desires  it:  "I  have  come  to  cast  fire  on 
the  earth:  and  what  will  I,  but  that  it  be 
kindled?"  (Luke  xii.  49.)  And  He  complains 
bitterly  through  the  mouth  of  the  prophet  of 
the  coldness  of  men  toward  Him:  "Many 
pastors  have  destroyed  my  vineyard,  they 
have  trodden  my  portion  under  foot,  they  have 
changed  my  delightful  portion  into  a  desolate 
wilderness.  They  have  laid  it  waste,  and  it 
hath  mourned  for  me.  With  desolation  is  all 
the  land  made  desolate :  because  there  is  none 
that  considereth  in  the  heart."  (Jer.  xii.  10-11.) 
Love  should  properly  not  be  qualified  as 
affectionate,  but  it  should  be  called  "affec- 
tion," in  man;  because  love  tends  toward 
union  with  its  object,  and  things  tend  only  as 
long  as  they  are  separated  from  the  object 
toward  which  they  tend:  "For  no  one  is 
properly  said  to  have  charity  toward  himself: 
but  love  tends  toward  another  so  as  to  be 
charity."  (St.  Gregory,  the  Pope,  Horn.  17.) 

[99] 


n 


Love,  therefore,  becomes  the  less  "  affec- 
tionate "  the  more  closely  it  approaches 
its  object,  so  that  it  ceases  to  "tend"  and 
strain,  and  at  once  begins  to  rest,  when  the 
union  is  accomplished;  then  it  is  love  in 
truth:  that  supreme  enjoyment  of  all  the 
good  obtainable. 

In  God,  love  is  more  than  affection  in  the 
common  sense  of  the  term;  first,  because 
"  affection,"  meaning  "  tension"  toward  some- 
thing desirable,  savors  of  imperfection;  and 
second,  because  the  natural  object  of  God's 
love  is  God  Himself;  but  God  is  not  drawn 
toward  Himself;  He  is  in  perfect  possession  of 
all  the  goodness  within  Himself:  like  the  light 
of  the  sun,  that  renders  its  own  source  lumi- 
nous. But  the  love  of  God  is  so  superabun- 
dant, being  infinite  as  He  is  Himself,  that  it 
overflows  its  own  source,  and  engulfs  all  who 
are  fit;  as  the  light  of  the  sun  illumines  every- 
thing that  is  susceptible  of  light:  "The  love 
of  God  is  poured  out  in  our  hearts  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  who  is  given  to  us."  (Rom.  v.  5.) 
God's  love  is  an  intense  love  that  does  not  only 
warm,  but  consumes:  "But  God  who  is  rich 
in  mercy,  for  His  exceeding  charity  wherewith 
[100] 


t 


He  loved  us,  even  when  we  were  dead,  hath 
quickened  us  together  in  Christ  (by  whose 
grace  you  are  saved)."  (Eph.  ii.  4-5.) 

From  this  we  must  learn  that  man,  in  his 
journey  through  this  life  toward  God,  loves 
God  in  proportion  as  he  keeps  the  thought 
of  God  present  in  his  mind,  striving  to  please 
God  in  all  his  undertakings,  and  giving  his 
life  course  that  direction  which  makes  the 
will  and  pleasure  of  God  its  purpose  and  the 
possession  of  God  its  accomplishment. 

The  union,  therefore,  of  the  vine  and  the 
branch,  upon  which  Jesus  Christ  insists  as 
upon  the  one  condition  of  salvation,  is  estab- 
lished gratuitously  by  God  through  grace,  but 
preserved  and  strengthened  by  our  coopera- 
tion through  the  works  of  faith  wrought  out 
in  charity,  or,  for  the  love  of  God:  "Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord,  thy  God,  with  thy  whole 
heart,  and  with  thy  whole  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind."  (Luke 
x.  27;  Deut.  vi.  5.)  "If  any  man  love  me,  he 
will  keep  my  word,  and  my  Father  will  love 
him,  and  we  will  come  to  him,  and  will  make 
our  abode  with  him."  (John  xiv.  23.) 

We  should  note  that  God  allows  no  re- 
[1011 


serve.  He  claims  our  whole  heart,  soul, 
strength,  and  mind;  there  is  nothing  left  for 
us  to  give  to  creatures,  or  to  retain  for  our- 
selves. Whatever  else  we  may  love  must  be 
loved  in  the  love  of  God,  or  for  God's  sake. 

This  is  neither  anomaly  nor  paradox;  for  we 
find  that  in  our  own  way  we  claim  the  same 
right:  A  man  who  loves  his  vocation  loves  it 
to  the  practical  exclusion  of  all  other  vocations, 
unless  he  be  a  "jack-of-all-trades  and  master- 
of-none."  Yet  he  may  and  does  appreciate 
the  vocations  of  others,  but  so  as  not  to  let 
them  hinder  him  from  the  practise  of  his  own. 
The  same  holds  good  of  conjugal,  parental, 
and  filial  love. 

Hence,  to  know  how  to  avail  ourselves  of 
the  means  which  God  puts  at  our  disposal,  so 
that  we  may  not  miss  our  end,  is  salutary 
wisdom  indeed.  For  even  though  a  man  may 
harbor  a  vague  and  general  desire  in  his  heart, 
to  gain  heaven,  yet  through  want  of  appre- 
ciation of  the  difficulties  connected  with  the 
achievement  of  his  desire,  he  neglects  the 
constant  exercise  of  himself  in  the  pursuit  of 
virtue,  and  will,  therefore,  not  be  entitled  to 
the  reward  which  God  holds  out  to  the  "good 
[102] 


and  faithful  servant,"  "for  I  bear  them  wit- 
ness that  they  have  a  zeal  of  God,  but  not 
according  to  knowledge.  For  they,  not  know- 
ing the  justice  of  God,  and  seeking  to  establish 
their  own,  have  not  submitted  themselves  to 
the  justice  of  God.  For  the  end  of  the  law 
is  Christ,  unto  justice  to  everyone  that 
believeth."  (Rom.  x.  2-4.) 

Now,  to  make  this  wisdom  truly  wisdom, 
i.e.,  to  practise  what  faith  teaches  us,  is  the 
real  life  work  of  the  Christian:  "Faith,  then, 
cometh  by  hearing;  and  hearing  by  the  word 
of  Christ.  But  I  say:  Have  they  not  heard? 
.  .  .  Hath  not  Israel  known? "  (Rom.  x.  17- 
19.)  And  "still,  you  killed  the  Author  of 
life!"  (Acts,  iii.  15.) 

How  important  is  it,  then,  that  man 
learn  the  ways  of  truth  from  childhood: 
"Suffer  the  little  children,  and  forbid  them 
not,  to  come  to  me :  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  for  such."  (Matt.  xix.  14.)  "All  these 
things  have  I  kept  from  my  youth."  (Matt. 
xix.  20.)  "My  son,  from  thy  youth  up  re- 
ceive instruction,  and  even  to  thy  gray  hairs 
thou  shalt  find  wisdom."  (Eccles.  vi.  18.) 

Children  must  be  made  acquainted  in  time 
[103] 


tt 


with  the  mysterious  world  whence  the  golden 
light  is  ever  to  beam  upon  their  days  through- 
out life.  The  earlier  this  instruction  is  given 
after  the  awakening  of  the  mind,  the  deeper, 
the  more  lasting,  and  the  more  pleasant  will 
be  the  impression,  the  more  plentiful  the  fruit. 
Iron  must  be  hammered  while  it  is  hot,  wax 
molded  while  it  is  soft:  and  the  human  mind 
and  heart  are  at  no  time  so  susceptible  to  the 
purifying  and  elevating  influence  of  the  beauti- 
ful truths  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  in 
the  early  spring  time  of  childhood,  when  the 
gleam  and  glow  of  baptismal  grace  and  the  nat- 
ural tenderness  of  the  human  heart  ("Anima 
humana  natura  Christiana")  still  linger  un- 
dimmed  and  pure  in  the  soul  as  well  as  in  the 
eyes. 

Hence  religious  schools  are  a  necessity  rather 
than  a  commodity  or  luxury;  they  are  an  in- 
dispensable necessity  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Christian  and  the  Christian  Church. 

"Now,  if  it  is  vain  to  expect  a  harvest  where 
no  seed  has  been  sown,  how  can  we  hope  to 
have  better  living  generations  if  they  be  not 
instructed  in  time  in  the  doctrine  of  Jesus 
Christ?  It  follows,  too,  that  if  faith  languishes 
[1041 


in  our  days,  if  it  has  almost  vanished 
among  large  numbers,  the  reason  is  that  the 
duty  of  catechetical  teaching  is  either  ful- 
filled very  superficially,  or  altogether  neg- 
lected. Nor  will  it  do  to  say,  in  excuse,  that 
faith  is  a  free  gift  bestowed  upon  each  one  at 
baptism.  Yes,  all  baptized  in  Christ  have 
infused  into  them  the  habit  of  faith;  but  this 
most  divine  germ,  left  to  itself  and  unaided, 
so  to  speak,  from  outside  sources,  'does  not 
develop  or  put  forth  great  branches'"  (Mark 
iv.  32).  (Encyclical  of  Pius  X  on  the  Teach- 
ing of  Catechism.) 


[105] 


2.  |^iitt>  la  log  Ife* 

1.  THE  knowledge  of  his  relation  to  God, 
his  origin,  the  purpose,  end  and  final  disposi- 
tion of  his  life,  is,  therefore,  not  merely  an 
adornment  of  the  other  endowments  of  man, 
but,  rather,  a  necessary  attainment,  a  natural 
accomplishment,  so  to  speak,  the  perfection 
of  his  intelligence,  the  foundation  of  grace. 

2.]  This  knowledge  we  acquire  by  devoted 
application  to  the  fountainheads  of  religious 
learning,  and  we  make  it  our  own  by  serious 
pondering  in  meditation.  It  is  the  perfection 
of  the  human  intelligence,  because  the  under- 
standing of  ourselves  and  of  the  purpose  of  our 
existence  is  wrapped  in  doubt  as  long  as  we 
are  not  enabled  to  connect  the  two  ends  of  our 
being,  our  origin  and  our  destiny,  time  and 
eternity,  matter  and  spirit,  creature  and 
Creator,  sin  and  grace. 

3.  This  knowledge  is  the  preparation  for 
grace.  This  is  saying  very  much.  But  grace 
presupposes  nature  so  disposed  or  disposable 
[1061 


as  readily  to  correspond  with  the  motion  of 
grace:  a  rusty,  or  an  untrimmed,  mechanism 
does  not  answer  the  motive  force  of  the 
spring:  " Where  there  is  no  knowledge  of  the 
soul,  there  is  no  good:  and  he  that  is  hasty 
with  his  feet,  shall  stumble."  (Prov.  xix.  2.) 

4.  The    Christian    must,    therefore,    thor- 
oughly exercise  himself  in  the  understanding 
of  those  things  which  appertain  to  the  purpose 
of  his  existence. 

5.  Man   is   only   a   traveler   here   below. 
"For  we  have  not  here  a  lasting  city,  but  seek 
one  that  is  to  come."     (Heb.  xiii.  14.)     Thus, 
as  a  traveler  must  know  the  purpose  of  his 
journey,  his  destination,  and  acquaint  himself 
with  the  route,  studying  its  difficulties,  facili- 
ties, and  dangers,  so  also  must  the  Christian 
exercise  prudence  in  traveling  toward  eternity. 
We  are  prudent  in  all  things  that  concern  our 
temporal  well-being:  why  should  we  foolishly 
trust  to  chance,  when  there  is  no  chance,  in 
the  pursuit  of  our  only  course  from  this  life 
to  the  unchangeable  beyond? 

6.  For  this  reason  we  must  be  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  very  rudiments  of  Christian 
doctrine,   so    that    we   may   understand   its 

[107] 


n 


system  and  scope,  and  hence  we  must  master 
that  epitome  of  religious  science,  the  hand- 
book of  the  "  Science  of  the  Saints"  (Prov. 
ix.  10),  our  catechism,  which  supplies  the 
axiomatic  truths,  as  it  were,  of  the  whole 
system  of  theology.  We  must  attentively 
listen  to  the  sermon;  we  should  read  religious 
books,  and  cultivate  the  society  of  religious 
people.  But,  doing  all  this,  we  must  pray,  in 
order  to  obtain  from  God  the  fruitfulness  of 
our  knowledge.  It  is  He  alone  that  can 
widen  and  deepen  our  understanding  of  Him- 
self and  His  wonderful  ways;  it  is  He  alone 
that  can  lay  round  about  us  the  invigorating 
atmosphere  of  manly  piety. 

7.  The  catechism  is  despised  as  "too  mean 
a  book  for  a  grown  man  to  study." 

A  grown  man  need  not  study  the  catechism, 
if  he  knows  and  understands  it  as  well  as  the 
multiplication  tables. 

But  if  an  adult  who  has  forgotten  the  rudi- 
ments of  arithmetic  over  mathematics,  should 
consider  it  too  mean  a  task  to  take  up  the 
handbook  of  arithmetic  which  he  laid  aside  at 
his  graduation,  would  we  adjudge  him  to  be 
wise? 

[108] 


8.  "  Sermons  suffer  from  an  incurable  de- 
fect: sameness  and  monotony  of  theme  and 
treatment"  -  say  the  worldly-wise. 

It  is  not  the  preacher  that  instructs,  al- 
though his  labor  and  zeal  may  add  force  and 
fervor  to  his  discourse:  it  is  the  double- 
edged  sword  of  the  Word  of  God  which  pene- 
trates even  unto  the  separation  of  soul  and 
spirit:  "For  the  word  of  God  is  living  and 
effectual,  and  more  piercing  than  any  two- 
edged  sword;  and  reaching  unto  the  division 
of  the  soul  and  the  spirit,  of  the  joints  also 
and  the  marrow,  and  it  is  a  discerner  of  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart."  (Heb. 
iv.  12.) 

The  reason  that  so  many  sermons  are  in- 
effective, lies  chiefly  with  the  hearers.  They 
come  unprepared,  entangled  in  the  cares  and 
troubles  of  the  working-day;  they  drag  Satur- 
day into  the  Sunday  service.  Or  they  boil 
with  the  hurry  of  having  done  with  so  unprofit- 
able an  occupation  as  it  is  to  them  to  assist  at 
the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  which  they  have 
never  taken  pains  to  understand  and  to 
appreciate.  If  men  would  take  their  religious 
duties  as  seriously  as  their  social  and  civil 
[1091 


n 


responsibilities,  or  spend  as  much  energy  and 
attention  —  not  to  say,  time  —  in  the  study  of 
the  interests  of  their  soul,  as  they  do  in  those 
of  their  business;  nay,  if  they  would  only 
read  their  prayer-book  as  attentively  as  they 
read  their  newspaper,  they  would  soon  feel  a 
new  pulse  rushing  through  their  souls,  a  pulse 
full  of  life,  quickening  the  slothful  heart  with 
a  fervor  hot  enough  to  consume  the  sen- 
suality of  the  flesh  and  burn  out  the  pesti- 
lential hatcheries  of  sin,  greed  and  lust.  But 
a  soul  engrossed  with  the  worry  of  the  world 
and  the  tumult  of  the  flesh  is  not  a  fit  subject 
of  the  consolations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 
We  must  at  once  prepare  our  mind  as  we 
accept  the  invitation  to  the  heavenly  banquet. 
The  attendance  at  divine  services  must  be 
felt  as  the  exercise  of  a  pleasant  duty;  it  must 
not  come  in  the  ragged  and  worn-out  guise  of 
a  habit. 

To  lay  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  life 
wisely,  the  rubbish  —  the  thorns  which  suffo- 
cate the  good  seed  —  the  useless  cares  of 
earthly  things,  must  first  be  cleared  away; 
the  mind  must  be  made  free  with  "the  liberty 
of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God  "  (Rom.  viii. 
[110] 


21),  throwing  care  and  trouble  upon  the  Lord, 
who  is  strong  to  bear  them  with  us:  or,  "are 
not  all  things  that  he  hath,  in  the  hand  of 
God?"  (Job  i.  11.)  "Therefore  I  say  to 
you,  be  not  solicitous  for  your  life,  what  you 
shall  eat,  nor  for  your  body,  what  you  shall 
put  on.  Is  not  the  life  more  than  the  meat, 
and  the  body  more  than  the  raiment?  .  .  . 
For  after  all  these  things  do  the  heathen 
seek.  For  your  Father  knoweth  that  you 
have  need  of  all  these  things."  (Matt.  vi. 
25-32.) 

Full  confidence,  then,  in  the  providence  of 
God  is  the  first  virtue  to  be  practised  by  the 
disciple  of  Christ  in  his  intercourse  with  his 
Maker:  "  Every  one  that  believeth  in  Him, 
shall  not  be  confounded"  (Rom.  x.  11); 
"but  the  foolish  things  of  the  world  hath  God 
chosen,  that  he  may  confound  the  wise;  and 
the  weak  things  of  the  world  hath  God  chosen, 
that  He  may  confound  the  strong"  (1  Cor.  i. 
27).  God  prides  Himself,  humanly  speaking, 
on  bringing  the  worldly  prudence  and  the  con- 
ceit of  man  to  naught,  and  to  "exalt  the 
humble"  (Luke  i.  52),  and,  "whosoever  shall 
exalt  himself,  shall  be  humbled  (Matt.xxiii.12). 
[1111 


n 


Hence,  diligence  in  the  acquisition  of  relig- 
ious knowledge  is  necessary. 

But  above  all  things,  prayer  must  not  be 
neglected:  "  Enlighten  my  eyes  that  I  may 
never  sleep  in  death!"  (Ps.  xii.  4.) 

Then,  a  deep  sense  of  the  duty  resting  on  us, 
to  pay  God  homage  and  adoration  as  sociable 
beings,  in  the  company  of  our  brethren,  as 
children  of  the  great  Father-God;  and  in 
public,  as  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  must 
claim  to  be  honored  by  His  rational  creatures. 

We  must  publicly,  in  word  and  deed,  ac- 
knowledge the  sovereignty  of  God  over  us  as 
His  loyal  subjects. 


This  is  a  solid  foundation  upon  which  may 
be  reared  a  solid  house;  and  "when  a  flood 
came,  the  stream  beat  vehemently  upon  that 
house,  and  it  could  not  shakeTit;  for  it  was 
founded  upon  a  rock."  (Luke  vi.  48.) 


112] 


3.   Caniiiir  unifr 


"Letting  in  Light" 

"A  double-minded  man  is  inconstant  in  all 
his  ways."  (James  i.  8.) 

A  double-minded  man,  in  the  sense  of  this 
pronouncement  of  the  Apostle  St.  James,  is  a 
doubter,  according  to  the  words  of  the  Master, 
from  whom  the  Apostle  learned  his  wisdom: 
"No  man  can  serve  two  masters.  For  either 
he  will  hate  the  one  and  love  the  other;  or  he 
will  sustain  the  one,  and  despise  the  other. 
You  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon." 
(Matt.  vi.  24.) 

Now  a  doubter  in  spiritual  things  is  as  one 
hedging  a  bet:  he  has  little  confidence  in  the 
cause  which  he  first  espoused,  and,  hence, 
begins  to  wager  against  it,  so  as  not  to  lose 
much,  no  matter  how  the  die  may  fall. 

A  Christian  of  such  a  disposition  does  not, 
indeed,  wish  to  break  faith  with  God,  for  he 
knows  too  much,  at  least  confusedly,  not  to  fear 
the  irremediable  consequences  ;  but  at  the  same 
time  he  would  keep  faith  with  the  world,  i.e., 
[1131 


with  his  carnal  cravings,  his  ambitions,  his  ava- 
rice :  he  is  wavering;  he  is  trying  to  serve  two  mas- 
ters— and  makes  himself  a  hypocrite.  He  says 
hi  his  heart :  "  My  lord  is  long  a-coming": li  and 
shall  begin  to  strike  his  fellow-servants,  and 
shall  eat  and  drink  wine  with  drunkards;  the 
lord  of  that  servant  shall  come  in  a  day  that  he 
hopeth  not,  and  at  an  hour  that  he  knoweth  not : 
and  shall  separate  him,  and  appoint  his  portion 
with  the  hypocrites.  There  shall  be  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth."  (Matt.  xxiv.  48,  51.) 

We  must  understand  the  mission  of  Jesus 
Christ.  From  the  way  of  His  walking  among 
men  in  the  flesh  we  shall  learn  what  must  be 
our  relation  to  Him:  "He  was  in  the  world, 
and  the  world  was  made  by  Him,  and  the  world 
knew  Him  not."  (John  i.  10.)  "He  came 
unto  His  own,  and  His  own  received  Him 
not."  (John  i.  11.)  (What  a  dreadful  ver- 
dict!) "But  as  many  as  received  Him,  He 
gave  them  power  to  be  made  the  sons  of  God, 
to  them  that  believe  in  His  name."  (76.  12.) 

Behold  the  distinction  between  the  children 
of  God  and  the  children  of  the  world:  those 
who  receive  Him  are  taken  into  the  house- 
hold of  God  as  His  children  by  grace;  those 
[114] 


who  receive  Him  not  shall  be  left  without,  for 
they  "think  within  themselves,  saying:  This 
is  the  heir,  let  us  kill  him,  that  the  inheritance 
will  be  ours"  (Luke  xx.  17),  and,  when  called 
to  the  feast  of  the  King's  son,  they  "neglected, 
and  went  their  ways,  one  to  his  farm,  and 
another  to  his  merchandise."  (Matt.  xx.  5.) 
A  Christian  must,  therefore,  candidly  pro- 
fess, and  sincerely  acknowledge  that: 

1.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  son  of  God,  true  God 
with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

2.  Jesus  Christ  was  in  the  world,  making 
Himself  our  brother  by  the  assumption  of  our 
nature. 

3.  Jesus  Christ  came  to  redeem  the  world 
from  sin  and  its  terrible  consequences:  igno- 
rance, inclination  to  evil,  and  eternal  damna- 
tion. 

4.  Jesus   Christ   redeemed   the   world   by 
making  Himself  the  victim  of  the  vengeance 
called  down  upon  the  earth  by  sin. 

5.  Jesus  Christ  could  have  made  reparation 
for  sin  by  an  act  of  His  will;  but  we  would  then 
have  acknowledged  and  realized  neither  His 
condescension,  nor  His  sacrifice  and  charity, 
nor  the  enormity  of  our  guilt. 

[115] 


in  tit* 


6.  Jesus  Christ  established  His  Church  as 
the  Teacher  of  all  nations,  and  the  Ark  of  Salva- 
tion in  the  universal  flood  of  error  and  cor- 
ruption. 

7.  He  raised  the  standard  of  morality  to  the 
sublimest  heights,  touching  the  very  sanctity 
of  God  :  "  Be  ye  perfect  even  as  your  Father  in 
heaven  is  perfect."     (Matt.  vi.  14.) 

8.  He  marked  with  His  own  footprints  the 
only  way  to  true  happiness  on  earth,  and  to 
everlasting  happiness  beyond. 

9.  He  is  constituted  the  Judge  of  the  living 
and  the  dead,  i.e.,  the  good  and  the  wicked. 

"  Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other.  For 
there  is  no  other  name  under  heaven  given  to 
men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved."  (Acts  iv.  12.) 

And  He  said:  "  Therefore  did  I  say  to  you 
that  no  man  can  come  to  me,  unless  it  be  given 
him  by  the  Father."  (John  vi.  66.) 

In  Particular 

I.   //  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Consubstantial  Son  of 
God,  it  follows: 

(1)  That  His  doctrine  concerning  the  way 
of  truth  is  infallible:  "  I  am  the  way,  the  truth, 
and  the  life." 

[116] 


His  mortal  enemies,  who  went  so  far  out  of 
the  way  of  the  social  proprieties  as  to  accuse 
Him  of  being  in  league  with  the  devil,  still 
bore  Him  this  enviable  testimony:  " Master, 
we  know  that  thou  art  a  true  speaker,  and 
carest  not  for  anyone,  for  thou  regardest  not 
the  person  of  men,  but  teachest  the  way  of 
God  in  truth"  (Mark  xii.  14),  tacitly  admit- 
ting thereby  that  their  accusation  was  sug- 
gested by  envy  and  hatred. 

(2)  That  He  teaches  with  authority  over 
all  men:  "For  He  was  teaching  them  as  one 
having  power,  and  not  as  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees."     (Matt.  vii.  29.) 

(3)  That  we  must  accept  His  teaching  as 
the  rule  of  our  lives,  and  the  guide  of  our  intel- 
ligence: "Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  you,  if  any 
man  keep  my  word,  he  shall  not  see  death 
forever."     (John  viii.  51.)     "He  that  loveth 
me  not,  keepeth  not  my  word.     And  the  word 
which  you  have  heard,  is  not  mine;  but  the 
Father's  who  sent  me."     (John  xiv.  24.) 

Both  the  work  and  the  way  of  salvation 
are  come  to  us  by  Jesus  Christ. 

(4)  That  we  must  not  put  the  interpreta- 
tions of  our  superciliousness  upon  the  teach- 

[1171 


n 


ing  of  Christ,  as  if  His  doctrine  could  not  meet 
the  requirements  of  modern  men  and  times: 
"For  whereas  for  the  time  you  ought  to  be 
masters,  you  have  need  to  be  taught  again 
what  are  the  first  elements  of  the  words  of 
God:  and  you  are  become  such  as  have  need 
of  milk,  and  not  of  strong  meat."  (Heb.  v.  12.) 

What  a  stinging  rebuke  to  the  Jews,  who 
were  too  haughty  to  bear  the  humble  doctrine 
of  the  Cross!  And  well  merited  by  us  for  the 
supercilious  airs  assumed  by  the  modern 
scoffers  at  the  supernatural. 

(5)  That  we  may  rely  with  implicit  con- 
fidence, and  the  unalterable  determination  of 
perfecting  ourselves  in  spirit  and  in  truth, 
upon  His  guidance  through  the  light  of  the 
Gospel,  and  upon  His  promise  of  adding  unto 
us  "all  that  we  have  need  of  for  our  earthly 
life,"  if  we  but  "seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God 
and  His  justice"  (Matt.  vi.  33)  and  "the  king- 
dom of  God  is  within  you."  (Luke  xvii.  21.) 

II.   //  Jesus  Christ  was  in  the  World,  making 
Himself  our  Brother,  it  follows: 

(1)   That  He  lived  the  most  perfect  life 
that  it  is  possible  for  man  to  live,  an  ideal 
[118] 


Christian  life,  which  we  must  emulate  with  all 
our  strength. 

The  perfection  of  things  is  measured  by 
their  fitness;  fitness,  by  flawlessness :  the  flaws 
of  spiritual  life  are  evil  inclinations  which 
corrupt  our  aim  and  object  by  diverting  our 
intention  from  God  and  turning  it  upon  our- 
selves. Therefore,  given  grace,  the  perfection 
of  life  is  measured  by  sinlessness.  Christ 
Jesus  did  not  hesitate  to  face  His  enemies  with 
this  bold  challenge:  " Which  of  you  shall 
convince  me  of  sin?"  (John  viii.  46),  even 
after  He  had  roused  their  fiercest  hatred  by 
His  merciless  arraignment  of  their  hypocrisy 
and  their  blindness  of  intellect  and  hardness 
of  heart.  And  they  answered  with  irrelevant 
abuse:  "Thou  art  a  Samaritan,  and  hast  a 
devil."  (76.  48.)  He,  therefore,  appealed  to 
the  sanctity  of  His  life  as  proof  of  His  divinity. 
(2)  That,  therefore,  He  is  become  our  model, 
the  pattern  of  all  holiness. 

He  is  not  satisfied  with  His  followers'  prac- 
tising some  kind,  or  any  kind,  of  piety;  no; 
He  exacts  the  purest,  the  highest,  the  most 
ideal:  "Be  ye,  therefore,  perfect,  as  also  your 
heavenly  Father  is  perfect."  (Matt.  v.  48.) 
[1191 


n 


The  perfection  of  God  is  the  pattern  of  our 
own  perfection;  not  only  according  to  a  cur- 
sory statement,  but  by  the  command  of  the 
Son  of  God. 

Yet,  the  perfection  of  God  is  absolute 
perfection,  which  we  cannot  attain.  Our  per- 
fection must  ever  remain  limited  and  relative, 
in  accordance  with  the  limitations  of  our 
nature.  Nevertheless,  the  immensity  of  God's 
own  perfection  is  proposed  to  us  for  emulation  : 
as  the  streamlet  is  directed  towards  the  bound- 
less sea,  lest  its  waters  stagnate  on  the  way  for 
the  want  of  room  at  the  mouth.  How  God 
does  honor  us  with  this  heavenly  trust  in  our 
ambition! 

It  follows:  (3)  that  our  lives  are  worth  so 
much  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  weigh  so  much 
in  the  scale  of  His  Justice,  as  they  bear  of  the 
likeness  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ:  "  Every- 
one that  cometh  to  me,  and  heareth  my  words, 
and  doth  them,  I  will  shew  you  to  whom  he  is 
like.  He  is  like  to  a  man  building  a  house,  who 
digged  deep,  and  laid  the  foundation  upon  a 
rock."  (Luke  vi.  47-48.)  "But  the  rock  was 
Christ."  (1  Cor.  x.  4.)  "Whosoever  shall 
fall  upon  that  stone,  shall  be  bruised:  and 
[120] 


upon  whomsoever  it  shall  fall,  it  will  grind 
him  to  powder."  (Luke  xx.  18.) 

(4)  That  the  likeness  after  which  our  lives 
are  to  be  fashioned  is  the  likeness  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  God-man,  who  was  made  like  unto 
us,  excepting  sin:  "For  we  have  not  a  high- 
priest,  who  cannot  have  compassion  on  our 
infirmities:  but  one  tempted  in  all  things, 
like  as  we  are,  without  sin."  (Heb.  iv.  15.) 

Therefore:  Jesus  Christ,  by  His  life  on 
earth,  taught  us  this  truth  as  the  cornerstone 
of  all  true  piety  and  holiness:  TO  LIVE,  AS 

MUCH  AS  WE  MAY,  WITHOUT  SIN. 

Considerations 

Sin  has  now  lost  its  grim  aspect  for  the 
children  of  the  world,  and  it  becomes  neces- 
sary for  a  true  Christian  to  understand  that 
the  one  great  and  real  evil,  which  God  hates, 
and  excludes  from  the  life  of  His  Son,  is  sin. 

But  in  order  to  avoid  sin,  we  must  undergo 
a  rejuvenation  of  mind  and  heart;  we  must 
enkindle  within  ourselves  the  love  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  of  His  Church,  the  only  institu- 
tion of  salvation.  The  "world,"  however, 
will  not  be  rejuvenated,  unless  every  indi- 
[1211 


n 


vidual  is  spiritually  renewed,  for  men  make 
the  world. 

The  social  evils  which  we  deplore  have  been 
introduced  by  the  sin  of  estrangement  from 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ:  "O  Lord,  God  of 
Israel,  all  that  forsake  thee  shall  be  con- 
founded: they  that  depart  from  thee  shall 
be  written  in  the  earth:  because  they  have 
forsaken  the  Lord,  the  vein  of  living  waters." 
(Jer.  xvii.  13.) 

To  this  lament  of  the  prophet  the  Vicar  of 
Christ  adds  his  voice,  strenuously  exhorting 
the  world  to  return  to  Christ  and  "to  restore 
all  things  in  Christ."  (Pius  X.) 

III.   //  Jesus  Christ  Came  to  Redeem  the  World 

from  Sin  and  its  Deadly  Consequences, 

it  follows: 

(1)  That  man  cannot  attain  his  final  des- 
tiny without  the  illumination  of  the  evangelic 
teaching,  "  Wherefore  He  saith:  Rise  thou 
that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and 
Christ  shall  enlighten  thee."  (Eph.  v.  14.) 
Hence  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  corrects 
the  errors  of  human  opinion  and  judgment. 

One  of  the  most  pernicious  errors  that  has 
[122] 


stealthily  crept  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
men  is  the  practical  opinion  that  our  souls 
shall  be  saved  without  our  cooperation,  or  that 
it  suffices  on  the  part  of  man  to  live  up  to 
those  duties  to  which  he  is  bounden  under 
pain  of  mortal  sin:  as  if  a  man  in  business 
could  ever  achieve  success  by  attending  to 
those  things  only,  the  omission  of  which  would 
directly  bring  utter  ruin  in  its  train!  Or,  as 
if  a  citizen's  loyalty  and  patriotism  were  suf- 
ficiently manifested  by  his  fulfilling  only  those 
duties  toward  the  community,  the  neglect  of 
which  would  mean  the  penitentiary  for  him, 
or  execution. 

Duty  should  only  direct  our  love  of  God; 
where  there  is  no  motive  besides  strict  and 
bare  duty,  there  is  danger  of  failure  even  of 
the  strict  obligation;  and  there  is  certainly  no 
spirit  of  voluntary  sacrifice.  Is  there  any  love 
in  such  service  of  God,  as  when  we  tell  out  our 
works  to  God  like  counting  out  an  unwelcome 
tax  to  the  tax  receiver? 

"I  think  not.     So  you,  also,  when  you  shall 

have  done  all  these  things  that  are  commanded 

you,  say:  We  are  unprofitable  servants:  we 

have  done  that  which  we  ought  to  do . "     (Luke 

[123] 


n 


Uj*  j^a&jittt  of 


x  vii  .10.)  "  Therefore  ought  we  more  diligently 
to  observe  the  things  which  we  have  heard, 
lest  perhaps  we  should  let  them  slip."  (Heb. 

is.  i.) 

The  servant  who  is  content  with  performing 
only  the  minimum  of  his  share  of  the  work 
will  not  long  retain  his  place,  and  will  never 
gain  the  love  of  his  master;  nor  can  he  prove 
by  such  conduct  a  special  esteem  of  his  master, 
or  interest  in  his  master's  household. 

Thus  also  is  the  Christian  adjudged  "an 
unprofitable  servant"  of  God,  if  his  practise 
of  religion  turns  only  about  that  which  he  is 
rigorously  commanded  to  do:  He  soon  loses 
all  taste  for  religious  practises,  or,  at  least, 
performs  them  perfunctorily,  and  with  that 
lukewarmness  which  the  Holy  Ghost  con- 
demned so  severely  in  the  very  rise  of  the  new 
Dispensation:  "I  know  thy  works,  that  thou 
art  neither  cold  nor  hot.  I  would  thou  wert 
cold  or  hot.  But  because  thou  art  lukewarm, 
and  neither  cold  nor  hot,  I  will  begin  to  vomit 
thee  out  of  my  mouth."  (Apoc.  iii.  15-16.) 

Nay,  even  after  we  have  done  everything 
faithfully  and  lovingly,  we  look  to  God  for 
our  salvation  by  His  mercy  and  grace. 
[1241 


Besides  the  annual  communion  at  Easter, 
frequent  confession  and  communion  suggest 
themselves  to  the  earnest  Christian,  who  is 
alive  to  the  needs  of  his  spiritual  life  and 
appreciates  purity  of  heart  and  hand;  besides 
the  Sunday  Mass,  Mass  at  any  convenience, 
Rosary  devotion,  society  conferences,  after- 
noon or  evening  services;  besides  morning  and 
evening  prayers,  pious  aspirations  during  the 
day;  besides  the  avoiding  of  mortal  sin,  also 
the  dread  of  wilful  (deliberate)  venial  sin; 
besides  avoiding  actual  sin,  also  the  correction 
of  evil  inclinations  and  passions,  and  the  flight 
from  danger  and  occasion  of  sin;  and  besides 
the  fear  of  sin,  also  the  love  of  virtue  and  good- 
ness present  themselves,  ardent  charity  fill- 
ing out  our  souls  and  warming  up  our  hearts 
to  that  eager  desire  of  serving  God,  which 
animated  the  Apostles  of  the  Lord,  when 
"they  indeed  went  forth  from  the  presence  of 
the  council,  rejoicing  that  they  were  accounted 
worthy  to  suffer  reproach  for  the  name  of  Jesus. " 
(Acts  v.  41.) 

Our  physical  health  cannot  be  sustained  by 
food  alone,  by  the  same  food  at  all  times,  by 
unseasoned  food,  by  raw  food:  so  also  does 
[1251 


in  tit*  Ji>lmi!nmt  0(  IWilt 

*  *  » 

the  care  of  our  spiritual  health  require  whole- 
some, plentiful,  and  aptly  seasoned  food,  lest 
nausea  of  spiritual  things  supervene.  But 
food  alone  cannot  sustain  health;  we  require 
work  and  exercise,  light  and  air  in  abundance, 
and  tonics  or  stimulants,  —  because  we  are 
working  with  an  impaired  machinery.  With- 
out the  spices  of  life,  life  becomes  insipid,  void 
of  enthusiasm,  withers  and  wilts  and  wears 
away  without  an  apparent  purpose.  Spiritual 
and  mental  anemia  is  more  prevalent  than 
physical  anemia. 

(2)  The  first  remedy  of  nature  that  Jesus 
Christ  prescribed  to  those  Apostles  whom  He 
made  His  companions  in  the  garden  of  the 
agony  was  prayer.  They  neglected  the  rem- 
edy and  failed  of  His  invitation:  "And  when 
He  was  come  to  the  place  (Mt.  Olivet),  He 
said  to  them :  Pray,  lest  you  enter  into  tempta- 
tion." (Luke  xxii.  40.)  But  He  also  applied 
His  prescription  to  Himself:  "He  fell  upon 
His  face,  praying."  (Matt.  xxvi.  39.)  "He 
went  up  into  the  mountain  to  pray,  and  spent 
the  night  in  prayer."  (Luke  vi.  12.) 

There  is  no  practise  of  piety  which  the 
divine  physician  recommended  more  earnestly, 
[1261 


or  more  frequently,  than  prayer:  "And  He 
spoke  also  a  parable  to  them,  that  we  ought 
always  to  pray,  and  not  to  faint."  (Luke 
xviii.  1.) 

Another  remedy  is  patience.  When  He 
explained,  in  the  parable  of  the  sower,  which 
of  the  seed  that  had  been  sowed  yielded  fruit, 
He  taught  that  only  that  which  had  fallen  on 
good  ground  sprang  up  and  brought  fruit  in 
patience:  "But  that  on  the  good  ground  are 
they  who  in  a  good  and  a  very  good  heart, 
hearing  the  word,  keep  it,  and  bring  forth 
fruit  in  patience."  (Luke  viii.  15.) 

On  another  occasion,  when  He  foretold  His 
Apostles  and  Disciples  the  persecutions  which 
they  were  to  suffer,  He  assured  them  that  in 
patience  they  should  persevere  through  them 
all  and  conquer,  and  save  their  souls:  "But 
a  hair  of  your  head  shall  not  perish.  In  your 
patience  you  shall  possess  your  souls."  (Luke 
xxi.  18-19.) 

The  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  who  had  so 
deeply  drunk  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross  that 
he  gloried  in  nothing,  "save  in  the  Cross  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  the  world  is 
crucified  to  me,  and  I  to  the  world"  (Gal.  vi. 
[127] 


in  th*  ^Iiitilrattt  0f  iDf  aHt 

* » _  » 

14),  accounts  his  patience  among  the  signs  of 
his  apostleship,  to  wit:  "For  I  have  no  way 
come  short  of  them  that  are  above  measure 
Apostles,  although  I  be  nothing.  Yet  the 
signs  of  my  apostleship  have  been  wrought 
on  you,  in  all  patience,  in  signs,  and  wonders, 
and  mighty  deeds."  (2  Cor.  xii.  11-12.) 
He  holds  that  his  patience  proves  his  fellow- 
ship in  that  select  college  of  the  teachers 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  conclusively  as  the  signs 
and  wonders  and  mighty  deeds,  which  he 
wrought  through  the  same  grace  that  made 
him  patient;  and  he  accords  his  patience 
the  first  place  in  the  enumeration  of  his 
proofs. 

We  find  patience  in  almost  every  list  of 
virtues  that  this  Apostle  presents  to  the  early 
Christians. 

St.  James  commends  patience  in  these  sim- 
ple words:  "And  patience  hath  a  perfect 
work;  that  you  may  be  perfect  and  entire, 
failing  in  nothing."  (James  i.  4.) 

Altogether,  the  virtue  of  patience  and  the 

practise  of  prayer  are  the  key-note  of  the 

New  Testament;  patience  for  fortitude,  and 

prayer  for  perseverance:  so  that  Christian  life 

[128] 


is  hollow  mockery  without  them,  a  futile 
attempt  at  sanctity,  a  disgrace  of  the  Christian 
name,  giving  those  "who  are  without"  an 
occasion  of  what  St.  Paul  dreaded  so  much, 
that  they  might  have  something  evil  to  tell 
of  us.  "In  all  things  show  thyself  an  example 
of  good  works,  in  doctrine,  in  integrity,  in 
gravity,  the  sound  word  that  cannot  be 
blamed;  that  he  who  is  on  the  contrary  part 
may  be  afraid,  having  no  evil  to  say  of  us." 
(Tit.  ii.  7-8.)  

Whence  the  frequent  and  ready  ridicule  of 
Sunday  piety  f  If  our  piety  were  genuine, 
would  those  "on  the  contrary  part"  not  be 
afraid  to  say  evil  of  us?  True  Christian  piety, 
like  the  fragrance  of  the  rose,  does  not  but 
gladden  those  who  become  aware  of  its  pres- 
ence. But  a  pious  man  must  be  a  whole  man 
all  the  week.  Sunday  Catholics  are  but 
anachronistic  Pharisees.  We  must  not  hang 
away  our  religion  with  our  Sunday  attire. 
What  is  a  proper  thought  in  church  is  proper 
also  at  home  and  in  business;  and  what  it  is 
improper  for  us  to  think  in  our  intercourse  with 
our  neighbor,  friend  or  foe,  must  be  banished 
[129] 


in  ttt 

» 


on  all  occasions  as  foreign  to  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  His  Church. 


(3)  Christ  must  lead  the  way  to  heaven: 
He  said  of  Himself  that  He  was  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life:  He  calls  Himself  the 
door  of  the  sheep:  "Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  you, 
I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep."  (John  x.  7.) 
And  again :  "  I  am  the  door.  By  me,  if  anyone 
enter  in,  he  shall  be  saved :  and  he  shall  go  in 
and  out,  and  shall  find  pastures."  (76.  x.  9.) 
"I  am  the  good  shepherd.  The  good  shepherd 
giveth  his  life  for  his  sheep."  (Ib.  x.  11.) 

Hence  there  is  no  way  to  heaven  but 
through  Jesus  Christ;  i.e.,  no  one,  who  does 
not  follow  Jesus,  shall  enter. 

But  what  does  it  import  to  follow  Jesus? 
He  does  not  leave  us  in  doubt;  He  speaks  so 
plainly  that  only  abject  faint-heartedness  or 
wicked  stubbornness  may  mistake  the  sense 
of  His  directions:  "If  any  man  will  come  after 
me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross, 
and  follow  me."  (Matt.  xvi.  24.)  Again:  "If 
any  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny 
himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and 
follow  me."  (Luke  ix.  23.) 
[130] 


Self-denial  is  made  necessary  for  us  by  the 
unruliness  of  our  passions  consequent  upon 
original  sin.  Man  rebelled  against  God,  the 
servant  against  the  master,  the  child  against 
the  father:  wherefore  it  is  a  most  condign 
punishment  that  the  senses,  the  servants  of 
the  spirit,  should  rise  in  rebellion  against  the 
reign  of  the  mind.  This  rebellion  is  sup- 
pressed within  us  only  by  the  constant  prac- 
tise of  self-abnegation,  stopping  the  supplies 
of  the  enemy  and  crippling  his  resources. 


He  promises  to  light  up  the  way:  "I  am 
the  light  of  the  world;  he  that  followeth  me 
walketh  not  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the 
light  of  life."  (John  viii.  12.) 

The  invitation  which  Christ,  the  Master, 
extends  to  His  followers,  seems  cruel.  It  does 
not  promise  anything  the  flesh  craves.  We 
are  to  follow  Him  in  His  blood-stained  foot- 
prints, bearing  our  cross  to  the  crucifixion. 
But  —  "you  call  me  Master,  and  Lord;  and 
you  say  well,  for  so  I  am.  Amen,  amen,  I 
say  to  you,  the  servant  is  not  greater  than  his 
lord;  neither  is  the  apostle  greater  than  he 
that  sent  him.  If  you  know  these  things,  you 
[131] 


in  Hit  JHut&ittit  0$ 


shall  be  blessed  if  you  do  them."     (John  xiii. 
13,  16,  17.) 

In  order  that  we  may  profit  by  His  invita- 
tion, we  must  realize  what  the  carrying  of 
the  cross  imports. 

We  must  remember,  first,  that  by  His 
suffering  and  death,  the  Lord  showed  the 
world  what  punishment  man  deserves  for  his 
infidelity  to  God,  of  which  he  makes  himself 
guilty  by  sin,  for  His  life  is  the  price  of  our 
salvation.  He  assumed  our  guilt,  and  with 
it,  its  penalty.  Hence  He  invites  us  to  a 
warring  expedition  against  the  wickedness 
that  is  our  inheritance  through  the  first  sin, 
that  first  rebellion  of  man  against  the  sover- 
eignty of  God. 

All  the  dangers  of  soul  that  beset  us  through 
life,  all  the  passions  that  draw  us  hither  and 
thither  between  Heaven  and  Hell,  all  the 
trials  and  tribulations  that  are  heaping  round 
about  us,  form  the  cross  which  we  are  bidden 
to  bear  after  Him.  He  bore  these  things  in 
our  stead  by  taking  upon  Himself  the  task  of 
obtaining  divine  assistance  for  us,  so  that  we 
may  become  strong  enough  not  to  fall,  or,  if 
we  have  fallen,  that  we  have  grace  to  rise. 
[132] 


We  must  —  in  dry  words  —  tame  our  anger, 
regulate  and  temper  our  appetite,  crush  our 
pride,  bridle  our  lust,  rouse  ourselves  from 
sloth,  vanquish  greed,  and,  in  short,  learn  to 
love  God  above  all  things,  and  our  neighbor  as 
ourselves,  after  the  manner  of  men  who  con- 
sider themselves,  not  part  and  parcel  of  this 
world,  but  the  reinstated  heirs,  beggars  though 
they  now  be,  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven: 
"  For  to  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain." 
(Phil.  i.  21.) 

We  shall  become  sanctified  in  so  far  as  we 
eliminate  the  dominion  of  the  passions  from 
our  lives.  Only  after  the  reign  of  reason  and 
grace,  which  was  overturned  by  the  first  sin, 
and  is  rendered  more  hopeless  of  reestablish- 
ment  by  actual  sin,  shall  be  brought  about  in 
our  relations  with  God  and  our  fellow  man, 
may  we  glory  with  the  Apostle:  "And  I  live, 
now  not  I;  but  Christ  liveth  in  me.  And 
that  I  live  now  in  the  flesh:  I  live  in  the  faith 
of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  delivered 
Himself  up  for  me."  (Gal.  ii.  20.) 

"Go  and  do  thou  in  like  manner."  (Luke 
x.  37.)  "For  what  doth  it  profit  a  man,  if  he 
gain  the  whole  world,  and  suffer  the  loss  of 
[1331 


n 


his  own  soul  ?  Or  what  exchange  shall  a  man 
give  for  his  soul?"  (Matt.  xvi.  26.)  We 
must  not  rest  at  our  task  of  making  oroler 
within  ourselves,  until  we  have  nailed  the 
"old  man"  fast  to  the  cross  of  mortification 
and  the  practise  of  virtue:  then  only  are  we 
on  the  way  to  perfection.  What  we  want,  over 
and  above  this,  is  perseverance  in  humility  and 
patience  by  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ,  "  know- 
ing this,  that  our  old  man  is  crucified  with 
Him,  that  the  body  of  sin  may  be  destroyed, 
to  the  end  that  we  may  serve  sin  no  longer." 
(Rom.  vi.  6.)  And,  "Lie  not  one  to  another, 
stripping  yourselves  of  the  old  man  with  his 
deeds,  and  putting  on  the  new,  him  who  is 
renewed  unto  knowledge,  according  to  the 
image  of  Him  who  made  him."  (Col.  iii. 
9-10.)  Again,  "If  so  that  you  have  heard 
Him,  and  have  been  taught  in  Him,  as  the 
truth  is  in  Jesus,  to  put  off,  according  to  former 
conversation,  the  old  man,  who  is  corrupted 
according  to  the  desire  of  error,  and  be  renewed 
in  the  spirit  of  your  mind."  (Eph.  iv.  21-23.) 
Hence  it  is  not  sufficient  unto  man's  sanc- 
tification,  after  he  attains  the  use  of  reason,  to 
have  received  the  grace  of  sanctification  in 
[134] 


baptism;  this  grace  must  be  preserved,  nour- 
ished, increased,  by  our  faithful  cooperation 
with  actual  grace  in  the  performance  of  all 
those  things  that  serve  to  embellish  our  soul, 
as  their  practise  will  redound  to  our  own 
honor,  and  to  the  glory  of  the  Christian  name. 

An  Illustration 

(4)  A  very  pertinent  illustration  of  the 
task  of  man  here  below  is  furnished  by  the 
Gospel  narrative  of  the  ten  servants  of  the  king, 
as  told  by  the  Master  Himself: 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  that  he  returned,  hav- 
ing received  the  kingdom :  and  he  commanded 
his  servants  to  be  called,  to  whom  he  had 
given  the  money,  that  he  might  know  how 
much  every  man  had  gained  by  trading.  And 
the  first  came,  saying:  Lord,  thy  pound  hath 
gained  ten  pounds.  And  he  said  to  him: 
Well  done,  thou  good  servant,  because  thou 
hast  been  faithful  in  a  little,  thou  shalt  have 
power  over  ten  cities.  And  the  second  came, 
saying:  Lord,  thy  pound  hath  gained  five 
pounds.  And  he  said  to  him:  Be  thou  also 
over  five  cities. 

And  another  came,  saying:  Lord,  behold 
[1351 


m 


here  is  thy  pound,  which  I  have  kept  laid  up 
in  a  napkin:  for  I  feared  thee,  because  thou  art 
an  austere  man:  thou  takest  up  what  thou 
didst  not  lay  down,  and  thou  reapest  that 
which  thou  didst  not  sow. 

He  saith  to  him:  Out  of  thy  own  mouth  I 
judge  thee,  thou  wicked  servant,  thou  knewest 
that  I  was  an  austere  man,  taking  up  what  I 
laid  not  down,  and  reaping  that  which  I  did 
not  sow:  and  why  then  didst  thou  not  give 
my  money  into  the  bank,  that  at  my  coming 
I  might  have  exacted  it  with  usury?  And  he 
said  to  them  that  stood  by:  Take  the  pound 
away  from  him,  and  give  it  to  him  that  hath 
ten  pounds."  (Luke  xix.  15-24.) 

This  parable  is  so  plain  that  it  requires 
little  explanation.  The  only  question  that 
might  be  asked  is  concerning  the  bank.  Of 
this  St.  Chrysostom  says:  "In  material  riches 
the  debtors  are  bounden  simply  to  care-taking; 
for  they  must  return  as  much  as  they  received, 
and  nothing  else  is  asked  from  them.  But  in 
the  sacred  teaching  (in  divinis  eloquiis)  we 
are  not  only  obliged  to  watchfulness,  but  also 
exhorted  to  increase  (them)." 
The  divine  Master  teaches  the  same  obliga- 
[136] 


tion  by  the  example  of  the  fruit  tree.  "For 
now  the  ax  is  laid  to  the  root  of  the  trees. 
Every  tree  therefore  that  doth  not  yield  good 
fruit,  shall  be  cut  down  and  cast  into  the  fire." 
(Matt.  iii.  10.) 

The  life  of  man  must  be  a  fruitful  life,  full 
of  the  fruits  of  good  works;  so  much  that  we 
learn  one  from  another,  and  those  "on  the 
contrary  part,"  from  us,  to  praise  the  Father  in 
Heaven  for  the  good  that  is  within  us,  accord- 
ing to  the  encouraging  command :  "So  let  your 
light  shine  before  men;  that  they  may  see 
your  good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  who 
is  in  Heaven."  (Matt.  v.  15.) 

IV.   Jesus  Christ  made  Himself  the  Victim  of 
the  Vengeance  called  down  by  Sin 

(1)  "Christ  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of 
the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us:  for  it  is 
written  "  (Deut.  xxi.  23):  "  Cursed  is  everyone 
that  hangeth  on  a  tree"  (Gal. iii.  13),  "blotting 
out  the  hand-writing  of  the  decree  that  was 
against  us,  which  was  contrary  to  us.     And 
He  hath  taken  the  same  out  of  the  way, 
fastening  it  to  the  cross."     (Col.  ii.  14.) 

(2)  His  vicarious  atonement  is  continued 
in  the  sacrifice  of  the  New  Law,  the  Mass. 

[137] 


n 


This  is  the  fountain  of  grace,  welling  over 
with  the  merits  of  His  one  bloody  sacrifice  on 
the  Cross. 

He  invites  us  at  every  celebration  of  the 
august  mysteries  of  the  altar  to  come  and 
drink,  and  have  our  fill. 

(3)  In  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  the  merits 
of  His  passion  and  death  are  applied  to  those 
who  are  properly  disposed,  as  a  wholesome 
draught  is  administered  to  the  sick,  an  invig- 
orating drink  to  the  weary  wayfarer,  or  the 
exhausted  warrior. 

(4)  Devotion  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass 
enkindles  a  new  light  and  life  in  the  sanctified 
soul,  and  rouses  the  sentiments  of  compunction 
in  the  sinner. 

(5)  The  celebration  of  the  Mass  on  Sundays 
and  holy  days  of  obligation  is  the  public  adora- 
tion which  we  owe  to  God,  and,  therefore,  an 
occasion  of  the  public  profession  of  our  faith, 
of  our  allegiance  to  God,  and  of  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  men  in  Jesus  Christ,  "the  first- 
born among  many  brethren."     (Rom.  viii.  29.) 

Those  who  neglect,  through  their  own  fault, 
the  exercise  of  this  act  of  public  worship  on 
the  plea  that  it  is  commanded  only  by  the 
[138} 


Church,  range  themselves  with  the  infidels 
and  publicans.  "And  if  he  will  not  hear  the 
Church,  let  him  be  to  thee  as  the  heathen  and 
publican."  (Matt.  viii.  17.) 

(6)  If  Jesus  Christ  was  made  the  victim  for 
our  sins,  and  continues  to  distribute  His  graces 
from  the  cross,  why  should  men  discontinue 
the  practical  appreciation  of  His  gracious 
intervention,  without  which  heaven  would 
still  be  closed  upon  us,  and  hell  open  to  claim 
the  forsaken  sinner? 

V.   Jesus  Christ  might  have  made  Reparation 
for  Sin  by  an  Act  of  His  Will 

(1)  The  history  of  the  passion  and  death 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  description  of  His  love 
for  us.  For,  first,  He  chose  the  terrible  death 
of  the  crucifixion,  in  order  that  we  should  be 
moved  to  an  earnest  contemplation  of  the 
horror  of  sin  —  the  sole  reason  for  His  awful 
sacrifice : 

"No  man  taketh  it  (my  life)  away  from  me: 
but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself,  and  I  have  power 
to  lay  it  down :  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  up 
again."  (John  x.  18.) 

When  Pilate,  from  resentment  at  the  silence 
[1391 


n      *       taattt  xt 


Ht 

» 


of  Jesus  at  the  trial,  attempted  to  intimidate 
Him  by  a  threat  of  his  power  to  crucify  Him, 
"Jesus  answered:  Thou  shouldst  not  have 
any  power  against  me,  unless  it  were  given 
thee  from  above.  Therefore  he  that  delivered 
me  to  thee  (Caiphas)  hath  the  greater  sin." 
(John  xix.  11.)  "Greater  love  than  this  no 
man  hath,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
friends."  (John  xv.  13.)  "But  God  com- 
mendeth  His  charity  toward  us;  because  when 
as  yet  we  were  sinners,  according  to  the  time, 
Christ  died  for  us."  (Rom.  v.  8-9.) 

(2)  The  history  of  the  passion  and  death  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  true  description  of  the 
hatred  of  God  for  sin;  for  our  sins. 

God,  the  Father,  in  sending  His  Son  for  our 
redemption,  did  not  spare  Him  from  any  of  the 
evils  attendant  upon  man's  sojourn  on  earth; 
on  the  contrary,  the  history  of  the  life  of  Jesus 
Christ,  from  His  miraculous  birth  to  His 
miraculous  death,  as  related  in  the  simple 
manner  of  the  unsophisticated  evangelists, 
reveals  the  dreadful  divine  resolve  of  "making 
Him  like  unto  us"  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
became  the  "reproach  of  men,  and  the  out- 
cast of  the  people."  (Ps.  xxi.  7.) 
[140] 


He  was  born  in  a  strange  city,  outside 
the  city,  in  a  stall  by  the  wayside,  where  His 
ever-blessed  Mother  "wrapped  Him  up  in 
swaddling  clothes,  and  laid  Him  in  a  manger; 
because  there  was  no  room  for  them  in  the  inn." 
(Luke  ii.  7.) 

He  was  driven  into  Egypt  by  the  furious 
frenzy  of  Herod  "the  Great." 

He  spent  His  youth  at  Nazareth,  a  poor 
and  neglected  little  town  of  Galilee.  "Can 
anything  good  come  from  Nazareth?"  (John 
i.  46.)  It  was  Nathanael  who  said  this  hard 
word  of  the  home  town  of  Jesus,  Nathanael,  of 
whom  the  Lord  said:  "Behold  an  Israelite 
indeed,  in  whom  there  is  no  guile."  (John 
i.  47.) 

-  He  lived  in  absolute  obscurity  until  He 
reached  His  thirtieth  year.  What  good,  we 
think,  we  would  have  done,  what  name  we 
would  have  made  for  ourselves,  what  wonders 
of  wisdom  we  would  have  taught  the  world  in 
those  long,  dark  thirty  years,  had  we  had  His 
opportunities  and  powers! 

But  He  set  the  world  the  example  of  obe- 
dience and  humility  unto  self-abasement ;  and 
taught  this  most  wholesome  lesson,  that  knowl- 
[141] 


n 


edge  is  of  no  avail  unless  it  be  of  God.  He 
had  not  come  to  elicit  our  admiration  of  His 
power,  but  to  fill  us  with  the  admiration  of 
His  charity,  lest  we  should  fail  to  learn  the 
lesson  of  penance  and  humility. 

—  He  left  His  earthly  home,  and  for  three 
years  had  not  where  to  rest  His  head. 

—  He  most  meekly  endured  the  persecutions 
of  the  evil  elements  in  Judea,  reproaching  only 
their    voluntary    blindness,    and    hypocrisy. 
Patiently  He  shaped  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  His  Apostles,  heavy  though  they  were  of 
understanding. 

-  He  endured  the  kiss  of  treason  from  one 
of  His  Apostles,  Judas,  and  the  denial  of  him 
upon  whom  He  had  already  begun  to  rear 
the  structure  of  His  new  kingdom,  the  Church. 

—  He  endured  all  the  torments  and  abuse 
that  the  exasperation  of   the  Jewish  priests 
and  the  rudeness  and  wickedness  of  a  licentious 
pagan  soldiery  could  invent. 

-  He  was  crucified,  and  died  between  two 
thieves,  thus  being  "  reputed  with  the  wicked: 
and  He  hath  borne  the  sins  of  many,  and  hath 
prayed  for  the  transgressors."     (Isa.  liii.  12.) 

—  After  His  death  He  was  maligned  as 

[142] 


"that  seducer,  (who)  said,  while  He  was  yet 
alive:  after  three  days  I  will  rise  again." 
(Matt,  xxvii.  63.) 

-  But    He    broke    the    chains    of    death, 
opened  His  own  grave,   or  rather  left  His 
sealed  grave,   and   with   one   stroke   of  His 
Omnipotence  shattered  and  brought  to  naught 
all  the  plans  of  His  adversaries,  and  established 
Himself  forever  on  the  throne  of  His  new 
spiritual  kingdom,  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
hearts  of  men. 

-  Such  evils  it  behooved  Christ  to  suffer. 
One  evil,  however,  Jesus  Christ  did  not  suffer, 
sin.     But  for  sin  He  suffered  all  that  He  did 
suffer. 

He  would  not  bear  as  much  as  the  breath 
of  sin :  He  elected  and  adorned  His  own  Mother 
of  the  thousands  of  maidens  who  had  for  long 
centuries  eagerly  longed  for  this  distinction; 
and  adorning  her,  He  anticipated  His  work  of 
the  redemption,  preserving  her  immaculate 
of  the  contamination  of  Adam's  guilt.  He 
would  rather  exhaust  His  Omnipotence,  so 
to  speak,  in  constructing  a  dwelling-place 
for  the  beginning  of  His  humanity,  worthy  of 
the  all-holy  God,  than  suffer  contact  with  sin. 
[143] 


n 


"Therefore,  as  Christ,  the  Mediator  between 
God  and  man,  in  assuming  the  human  nature, 
blotted  out  the  handwriting  of  the  decree  that 
was  contrary  to  us,  and  nailed  it  to  the  cross; 
so  the  Most  Holy  Virgin,  united  with  Him  in 
the  closest,  indissoluble  bond,  bearing  with 
Him  and  through  Him  everlasting  hatred 
against  the  venomous  serpent,  and  com- 
pletely conquering  him,  crushed  his  head  with 
an  immaculate  foot."  ("Inqff.  Deus,"  Bulla 
Dogm.  Pii  Pp.  IX.) 

The  immaculate  conception  is  also  a  fruit 
of  the  Cross;  the  lily  that  bloomed  among  the 
thorns,  the  primrose  that  anticipated  the 
springtide  of  the  new  dispensation. 

St.  John  the  Apostle,  the  loved  one  of  Jesus, 
who  understood  the  heart  of  Jesus  better 
than  any  other,  writes:  "My  little  children, 
these  things  I  write  to  you,  that  you  may  not 
sin."  (1  John  ii.  1.)  "And  you  know  that 
He  appeared  to  take  away  our  sins,  and  in 
Him  there  is  no  sin."  (1  John  iii.  5.) 

Hence  Jesus  Christ,  becoming  the  victim  for 
sin,  desires  to  wean  us  from  sin,  and  to  draw 
us  unto  Himself  in  love  of  God  and  our  fellow 
man. 

[144] 


VI.   Jesus  Christ  established  His  Church  as 

the  only  Teacher  of  all  Nations,  and  the  Ark 

of  Salvation  in  the  Universal  Flood  of 

Corruption  and  Error. 

"And  I  say  to  thee  that  thou  art  Peter; 
and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church, 
and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
it."  (Matt.  xvi.  18.)  "He  that  heareth 
you,  heareth  me,  and  he  that  despiseth  you, 
despiseth  me;  and  he  that  despiseth  me, 
despiseth  Him  that  sent  me."  (Luke  x. 
16.)  "For  we  cannot  but  speak  the  things 
which  we  have  seen  and  heard."  (Acts  iv. 20.) 

"Because  the  husband  is  the  head  of  the 
wife,  as  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  Church.  He 
is  the  savior  of  His  body  ...  as  Christ  also 
loved  the  Church  and  delivered  Himself  up 
for  it,  that  He  might  sanctify  it,  cleansing  it 
by  the  laver  of  water  in  the  word  of  life,  that 
He  might  present  it  to  Himself  a  glorious 
Church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any 
such  thing;  but  that  it  should  be  holy,  and 
without  blemish."  (Eph.  v.  23,  ss.) 

Hence:  (1)  The  Church  is  the  vicegerent  of 
Christ,  having  taken  up  the  mission  which  He 
[145] 


n 


laid  down  on  Mt.  Olivet  at  His  ascension. 
"And  the  Lord  Jesus,  after  He  had  spoken  to 
them,  was  taken  up  into  Heaven,  and  sitteth 
on  the  right  hand  of  God.  But  they  going 
forth  preached  everywhere:  the  Lord  working 
withal  and  confirming  the  word  with  signs  that 
followed."  (Mark  xvi.  20.) 

(2)  The  Church  ever  teaches  the  one  whole 
truth,  as  it  was  committed  to  her:  "  Going, 
therefore,  teach  ye  all  nations;  baptizing  them 
in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.    Teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you: 
and  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days,  even  to 
the   consummation   of   the  world."     (Matt. 
xxviii.  19-20.) 

(3)  The   Church   is   the   great    family   of 
God,    the    mystical    body   of   Jesus   Christ, 
the  fold  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  the  kingdom 
of  God  on  earth:   whosoever,  therefore,  does 
not  hold  communion  with  the  Church,  makes 
himself   a    prodigal,   an  amputated  limb,   a 
dried    up    branch,    a    lost    sheep,    a    guest 
without   a  wedding  garment;   he  squanders 
his    portion,    he    withers    and    dies,    he    is 
held  fast  by  the   thorns    to    perish    in    the 

[146] 


desert,  he  is  cast  forth  into  the  darkness 
without. 

Our  portion  is  Christ,  the  living  body  is 
Christ,  the  shepherd  is  Christ,  the  King's 
son  is  Christ:  who  does  not  belong  to  the 
Church,  does  not  belong  to  Christ;  who 
does  not  belong  to  Christ,  shall  be  lost: 
"Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other. 
For  there  is  no  other  name  under  heaven 
given  to  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved." 
(Acts  iv.  12.) 

God  calls  men  from  the  highways  and  by- 
ways, the  alleys  and  the  fences;  from  their 
fields,  merchandise  and  families,  to  the  wed- 
ding feast  of  His  Son:  that  is,  from  all  walks 
of  life ;  for  He  is  no  respecter  of  persons :  from 
all  that  man  calls  his  own,  because  man  is 
not  the  lord,  but  the  steward,  held  to  an 
accounting  unto  his  Lord. 

Man  must  separate  himself,  at  least  in 
spirit,  from  the  world  and  its  possessions,  and 
also  from  himself,  lest  he  be  separated  from 
the  kingdom  of  God:  " Blessed  are  the  poor 
in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
(Matt.  v.  3.)  Men  must  use  the  world  and 
its  goods,  its  pleasures  and  honors,  "as  if 
[147] 


they  used  it  not :  for  the  fashion  of  this  world 
passeth  away."     (1  Cor.  vii.  31.) 

Doing  these  things,  we  enter  into  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  of  the  kingdom,  of  the  Church. 

The  Citizens  of  the  Spiritual  Kingdom 

Two  things,  therefore,  are  requisite  for  true 
citizenship  in  the  kingdom  of  God:  (1) 
Adoption  by  grace,  in  baptism,  for  "unless  a 
man  be  born  again  of  water  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
God."  (John  iii.  5.)  (2)  The  "spirit  of  the 
country,"  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is 
His  spirit:  "But  you  are  not  in  the  flesh, 
but  in  the  spirit,  if  so  be  that  the  spirit  of 
God  dwell  in  you.  Now  if  any  man  have  not 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  His." 
(Rom.  viii.  8-9.) 

Hence  it  is  evident  that  no  man  living 
separated  from  the  Church,  or  living  within 
the  Church  only  according  to  the  external 
communion,  and  not  also  according  to  the 
internal  communion,  the  communion  of  grace 
and  of  the  spirit,  which  is  the  spirit  of  Christ, 
can  attain  to  eternal  salvation:  "For  all  that 
is  in  the  world,  is  the  concupiscence  of  the 
[148] 


flesh,  and  the  concupiscence  of  the  eyes,  and 
the  pride  of  life,  which  is  not  of  the  Father, 
but  is  of  the  world."  (1  John  ii.  16.)  The 
good  and  true  disciple  of  Christ,  then,  works 
his  salvation  with  the  Church  in  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  "  flying  the  corruption  of  that  con- 
cupiscence which  is  in  the  world."  (1  Peter 
i.4.) 

There  are  not  wanting  in  the  world  those 
who  think  they  can  hoodwink  God.  They 
have  a  false  conception  of  God.  Their  God 
is  the  reflection  of  their  own  inconstancy  and 
inconsistency,  and  perversion. 

They  are,  as  a  rule,  incurable  weaklings. 

There  are  also  those  who  pretend  to  hold 
that  it  matters  little  with  God  whether  a 
man  believes  this  thing  or  that,  anything  or 
nothing,  if  only  he  "do  right,  and  lead  a  good 
life." 

But,  first:  God  can  be  as  little  indifferent 
to  the  truth  as  a  merchant  to  the  multiplica- 
tion table,  or  the  surveyor  to  the  principles  of 
mathematics:  or  God  would  not  have  come 
down  among  His  children  to  teach  them  any 
truth  at  all.  And  God  is  the  truth:  whatever, 
therefore,  is  against  truth,  is  against  God;  as 
[149] 


»       *  -J        «s?i      K.  a*1  ?HI       *  < 

m  me  JPJroautt*  nf  Itauit 

*  *  j 

a  father  is  solicitous  about  the  welfare  of  his 
children,  that  they  should  not  only  inherit  his 
possessions  after  him  and  then  know  it,  and 
be  grateful  for  the  gift;  but  that  they  should 
also  now  enjoy  his  possessions,  and  not  think 
that  they  are  enjoying  their  own,  or  the  pos- 
sessions of  somebody  else  whom  they  owe  no 
thanks:  lest  they  squander  the  goods  unreason- 
ably and  unprofitably,  forgetting  that  they 
are  under  the  obligation  of  gratitude  and  love 
to  their  father. 

So  also  would  men  neglect  the  duty  of  the 
love  of  God,  from  which  God  Himself  cannot 
dispense  His  creature,  if  they  were  at  liberty 
to  neglect  His  truth. 

But,  secondly:  Error  is  an  evil;  and  God 
cannot  consent  to  evil,  because  it  assails  His 
sanctity. 

Of  course,  the  objection  is  raised  that  "an 
error  in  supernatural  truth  should  not  be  dis- 
pleasing to  God,  because  our  knowledge  of  the 
supernatural  is  at  best  imperfect  knowledge, 
since  of  the  supernatural  we  can  never  have 
convincing  certainty:  it  transcends  our  intel- 
ligence, which,  as  a  natural  faculty,  cannot 
establish  relations  with  supernatural  truth. 
[150] 


But  such  reasoning  teems  with  mistakes. 
For  (a)  The  supreme  court  of  morality,  from 
which  there  is  no  appeal,  is  conscience.  The 
intellect  may,  at  times,  inform  it  falsely; 
nevertheless  its  decision,  whether  correct  or 
incorrect  objectively,  is  the  only  safe  guide 
for  practise,  as  long  as  it  is  based  sincerely  on 
the  reasons  presented  by  the  intellect.  Nor 
is  it  a  dormant  power  that  must  be  roused 
by  thought  or  passion;  it  is  ever  awake  and 
vigilant,  like  the  watchman  in  the  lighthouse, 
and  is  alive  to  the  approach  of  danger,  earlier 
even  than  the  intellect :  it  is  the  voice  of  God. 

The  decision,  therefore,  whether  the  intellect 
should  be  satisfied  with  a  mixture  of  truth 
and  error,  must  be  asked,  not  from  the  intellect 
—  against  which  the  flesh  lusteth  —  but 
from  the  infallible  monitor  conscience. 

An  intelligence  clogged  with  the  mud  of 
passion  may  be  satisfied  with  the  semblance 
of  truth;  but  conscience  will  claim  the  rights  of 
human  nature  despite  the  objections  of  sloven- 
liness of  thought  and  impudence  of  concupis- 
cence, and  repeat  incessantly  its  demand  for 
justice  to  nature,  as  it  is  fashioned  by  the 
Creator.  Conscience  will  have  truth. 
[1511 


n 


The  man  who  would  persuade  himself  of  the 
folly  that  errors  in  supernatural  truth  are 
not  displeasing  to  God,  must  first  stifle  the 
voice  of  his  conscience,  "for  with  the  heart 
we  believe  unto  justice;  but  with  the  mouth 
confession  is  made  unto  salvation."  (Rom. 
x.  10.)  "Now  the  end  of  the  commandment 
is  charity,  from  a  pure  heart,  and  a  good  con- 
science, and  an  unfeigned  faith."  (1  Tim. 
i.  5.)  "But  even  until  this  day,  when  Moses 
is  read,  the  veil  is  upon  their  heart',  but  when 
they  shall  be  converted  to  the  Lord,  the  veil 
shall  be  taken  away."  (2  Cor.  iii.  15-16.) 

(b)  All  truth,  whether  revealed  or  naturally 
acquired,  is  one  whole  inviolable  system;  a 
mistake  hi  a  single  canon  of  truth  disturbs 
the  whole,  as  a  mistake  of  addition  or  multi- 
plication, etc.,  in  arithmetic,  spoils  the  entire 
problem. 

If  one  would,  for  example,  deny  the  neces- 
sity of  baptism  for  salvation,  he  would  deny 
implicitly  also  the  veracity  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  the  veracity,  and,  therefore,  the 
sanctity  and  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
existence  of  a  living  society  established  by 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Church,  into  which  we  are 
[152] 


initiated  by  baptism,  the  entire  economy  of 
the  redemption,  which  the  denial  of  the 
divinity  of  the  Redeemer  would  make  an 
illusion,  all  supernatural  revelation,  and  the 
hope  of  salvation  after  this  life:  in  brief,  he 
would  break  the  chain  of  truth  by  removing 
one  link  —  the  chain  would  fall  this  side  of 
the  chasm  between  heaven  and  earth,  and 
leave  us  hopeless  wanderers  on  the  banks  of 
the  river  of  darkness. 

(c)  Our  knowledge  of  the  supernatural  is 
imperfect  in  two  ways:  (1)  in  that  we  do  not 
know  all  that  lies  beyond  the  visible  world; 
(2)  in  that  our  capacity  is  limited. 

The  reason  for  the  first  is  that  God  has  not 
deemed  it  necessary  to  reveal  more  than  will 
avail  for  our  salvation;  the  reason  for  the 
second,  that  the  truth  of  God  shares  the 
immensity  of  His  being,  whereas  our  faculty 
of  .understanding  is  finite.  We  cannot  gather 
all  the  rays  of  the  sun  in  a  lens,  nor  dip  all  the 
ocean  into  a  tumbler. 

But  it  is  false  to  assert  that  for  these  reasons 

we  cannot  have  convincing  certainty  of  the 

existence  and  manner  of  the  supernatural. 

Some  of  us,  for  example,  may  not  know  more 

[153] 


n 


of  Rome  than  its  ancient  history,  its  site,  the 
number  of  its  inhabitants;  we  may  never  have 
seen  its  treasures  and  relics,  its  marvels  of 
ancient  architecture,  its  miles  of  subterranean 
excavations  with  the  cemeteries  of  the  holy 
martyrs:  but  would  we,  on  this  account,  doubt 
the  existence  of  the  eternal  city  and  her  his- 
tory, and  allow  a  skeptic  in  geography  to  cancel 
the  city  of  Rome  from  our  maps?  But  has  the 
world,  in  the  name  of  a  free  and  independent 
science,  not  permitted  the  erasure  of  the  name 
of  God  and  His  Son,  our  Redeemer,  from  the 
annals  of  history? 

(d)  Supernatural  truth  transcends  our  nat- 
ural power  of  intelligence;  but  its  assertive 
power,  i.e.,  the  guarantees  which  we  have  for 
its  genuineness,  does  not  elude  the  grasp  of 
our  mind  :  the  growth  of  a  plant,  not  to  speak 
of  the  mysteries  of  biology,  eludes  human  ken, 
like  everything  not  dissectible,  ponderable, 
measurable,  "for  we  know  in  part,  and  we 
prophesy  in  part"  (1  Cor.  xiii.  9);  but  the 
evident  proofs  of  the  process  of  life  and 
growth  are  so  lavishly  strewn  about  us  that 
we  think  we  know,  while  we  only  believe. 
And  it  is  only  the  pertinent  assertion  of  the 
[154] 


existence  of  things  about  us  that  forces  our 
conviction. 

Now  the  proofs  of  the  existence  of  the  super- 
natural, of  the  fact  of  divine  revelation,  are  to 
an  honest  mind  ("a  good  conscience")  so  over- 
whelming that  very  superstition  instantly 
seats  herself  in  state  in  place  of  Faith  de- 
throned. In  the  history  of  all  ages  —  but 
especially  in  the  history  of  our  own  age  —  "he 
who  runs  may  read." 

Would  we  deny  the  fact  of  a  divine  revela- 
tion, we  would  have  to  condemn  the  better 
part  of  the  race  as  gullible  dolts  and  arrant 
cowards,  and  explain  the  mythologies  of  the 
pagan  nations  as  an  echo  without  a  voice,  as 
the  dream  of  an  infant,  deaf,  dumb  and  blind. 

No,  the  vain  imaginings  of  the  mytholo- 
gies of  antiquity  are  in  large  measure  the  echo 
of  the  ancient  revelations  of  the  Jewish 
people,  or  even  an  echo  from  Paradise,  and 
also,  in  part,  the  echo  of  the  human  soul  crying 
for  heaven;  the  memories  of  childhood,  con- 
fused and  distorted,  in  the  heart  of  the  exile 
in  bondage,  degraded  beneath  his  condition, 
and  weaned  of  self-respect. 

For  its  fickleness  the  human  mind  needs  an 
[155] 


n 


infallible  compass  to  guide  it  through  the  mist 
and  maze  of  evil  that  is  ever  obscuring  its 
course  heavenward,  and  this  compass  is 
Divine  Revelation. 


Lastly,  however,  we  must  not  overlook 
that  the  will  of  man  is  informed  by  the  intel- 
lect (reason);  if,  therefore,  we  would  grant 
immunity  from  eviction  to  an  error  of  the 
intellect,  we  should  have  to  admit  that  man  is 
an  irresponsible  being  —  which  is  absurd :  for 
even  civil  society  regulates  the  relations  of 
citizen  to  citizen  by  law  and  ordinance.  Law, 
civil  and  moral,  now  takes  the  place  of  that 
original  integrity  with  which  God  had  endowed 
man  at  his  creation.  But,  pity  it  is  that  jus- 
tice, harmony,  order  and  righteousness  were 
lost.  It  was  the  title  of  nobility  that  was 
forfeited  by  treason  against  the  sovereign  by 
whose  graciousness  it  had  been  granted. 

Therefore  Christ  established  His  Church  as 
the  Ark  of  Salvation  in  the  universal  flood  of 
corruption  and  error. 


Third:  How  can  a  man  profess  to  do  right 
and  lead  a  good  life,  if  he  ignores  the  injunc- 
[156] 


tion  of  the  Son  of  God:  "Now  this  is  eternal 
life:  That  they  may  know  Thee,  the  only 
true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast 
sent."  (John  xvii.  3.)  To  know  Christ  means 
to  know  Him  by  His  doctrine. 

God's  rights  on  man  are  prior  to  man's 
rights  on  himself,  because  without  God,  man 
would  not  exist.  Man  is  not  a  sovereign,  nor 
is  a  nation  sovereign  in  this  sense,  that  it  may 
disregard  the  rules  of  justice  and  equity. 
Man  knows  this  from  his  inability  to  check  his 
own  decline  and  death;  but  if  man  owes  his 
origin  and  existence  to  God,  he  owes  Him 
also  obedience,  submission,  adoration.  A  man 
cannot  do  right  by  ignoring  his  first  duties 
toward  God.  The  righteousness  of  those 
who  "do  right"  without  religious  observance 
is  characterized  in  the  reproof  administered 
to  the  conceit  of  the  Pharisees:  "For  I  tell 
you  that  unless  your  justice  abound  more  than 
that  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  you  shall 
not  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  .  .  . 
Be  you,  therefore,  perfect,  as  also  your  heav- 
enly Father  is  perfect."  (Matt.  v.  20-48.) 

If  by  "leading  a  good  life"  one  would, 
peradventure,  understand  anything  but  a 
[1571 


n 


life  regulated  by  the  will  of  God,  the  modern 
Pharisee  would  have  to  be  referred  to  the 
beasts  of  the  forest,  which  lead  a  purer  life 
than  man  left  to  his  own  moral  resources  — 
not  to  speak  of  justice. 


The  Church  is  a  necessity.  As  the  Holy 
Ghost  imprints  a  spiritual  character  upon  the 
soul  of  man  in  baptism,  making  man  a  child 
of  God,  and  an  heir  of  heaven,  so  does  the 
Church  set  the  seal  of  God  upon  the  life  of 
her  children  by  the  Word  of  Truth:  "But  the 
sure  foundation  of  God  standeth  firm,  having 
this  seal:  the  Lord  knoweth  who  are  His;  and 
let  everyone  depart  from  iniquity  who  nameth 
the  name  of  the  Lord"  (2  Tim.  ii.  19);  "in 
whom  you  also,  after  you  had  heard  the  Word 
of  Truth  (the  Gospel  of  your  salvation);  in 
whom  also  believing,  you  were  signed  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  who  is  the  pledge  of 
our  inheritance."  (Eph.  i.  13-14.) 

Flowers  do  not  bloom  in  ice. 

VII.    Jesus    Christ    raised    the    Standard    of 
Morality 

(I)   The  unspeakable  abominations  of  the 
[158] 


pagans  must  not  as  much  as  be  mentioned  in 
the  same  breath  with  Christianity:  "Know 
you  not  that  the  unjust  shall  not  possess  the 
kingdom  of  God?  Do  not  err:  neither  for- 
nicators,  nor  idolaters,  nor  adulterers,  nor 
the  effeminate,  .  .  .  nor  thieves,  nor  covetous, 
nor  drunkards,  nor  railers,  nor  extortioners 
shall  possess  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  such 
some  of  you  were;  but  you  are  washed,  but 
you  are  sanctified,  but  you  are  justified  in  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  spirit 
of  our  God."  (1  Cor.  vi.  9-11.) 

"Now  concerning  spiritual  things,  my  breth- 
ren, I  would  not  have  you  ignorant.  You 
know  that  when  you  were  heathens,  you  went 
to  dumb  idols,  according  as  you  were  led." 
(1  Cor.  xii.  1-2.) 

St.  Paul,  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  knew 
the  Gentiles  very  well:  "This,  then,  I  say  and 
testify  in  the  Lord:  That  henceforward  you 
walk  not  as  also  the  Gentiles  walk  in  the  vanity 
of  their  mind,  having  their  understanding 
darkened,  being  alienated  from  the  life  of  God 
through  the  ignorance  that  is  in  them,  because 
of  the  blindness  of  their  hearts;  who,  despair- 
ing, have  given  themselves  up  to  lascivious- 
[159] 


m 


tiit  Jfcjtfamt  vf 

>        » 


ness,  unto  the  working  of  all  uncleanness,  unto 
covetousness.  But  you  have  not  so  learned 
Christ.  .  .  .  Give  no  place  to  the  devil!" 
(Eph.  iv.  17-20.)  He  knew  them  well! 

(2)  The  morality  of  the  Jews,  also,  stood 
in  sore  need  of  reform;  not,  indeed,  so  much 
that  the  standard  of  moral  truth,  but  be- 
cause the  standard  of  moral  practice  required 
elevating. 

(3)  There  is  no  need  of  going  into  the 
details  of  pagan  abominations,  as  everyone 
knows  from  his  own  propensities,  and,  perhaps, 
from  his  own  past  errors,  to  what  lengths  of 
perversion  the  human  heart  may  be  drawn 
by  the  insensible  allurements  of  evil  passions, 
when  it  frees  itself  from  the  check  of  the  fear 
of  God,  and  tosses  its  independence  of  purity 
to  the  winds. 

(4)  Of  the  moral  practices  of  the  Jews  in 
general  the  judgment  must  be  more  lenient; 
because  the  Jews  as  a  nation  never  completely 
forgot  the  commandments  delivered  to  their 
fathers,  and  the  promises  of  national  eleva- 
tion made  by  the  prophets. 

Yet  their  service  of  God  was  so  intensely 
earthly  that,  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  New 
[160] 


Testament,  it  compares  with  the  sanctity  of 
the  Christian  dispensation  as  a  crab-apple 
with  an  olive. 

The  law,  indeed,  was  good,  although  not 
as  yet  perfected  by  the  grace  of  the  Redeemer: 
11  Do  not  think  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the 
law,  or  the  prophets.  I  am  not  come  to  de- 
stroy but  to  fulfil."  (Matt.  v.  17.)  But  the 
practice  of  virtue  without  the  example  of  the 
divine  Master  was  so  difficult  to  fallen  man 
that  it  became  a  stumbling-block  even  to 
Abraham,  the  Father  of  the  Old  Testament. 
For,  much  as  we  may  admire  his  sublime 
faith,  we  cannot  but  pity  the  haste  with  which 
he  anticipated  the  realization  of  the  divine 
promise  of  an  heir  by  taking  unto  his  bosom, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  heathen  kings,  a  ser- 
vant girl,  Hagar,  to  hold  as  a  second  wife. 

Much  as  we  may  admire  the  wonderful 
simplicity  of  Moses,  who  dared  go  so  far  as 
to  ask  the  Almighty  God  to  show  him  His 
face,  we  would  search  in  vain  among  the 
saints  of  Jesus  Christ  for  a  man  so  far  ad- 
vanced in  holiness,  and  yet  so  weak  as  to 
doubt,  even  for  the  fatal  moment,  the  word  of 
God,  so  that  he  must  be  deprived  in  the  end  of 
[1611 


his  life's  dream  and  desire:  as  Moses  had  to 
forego  the  honor  and  joy  of  seeing  the  Land 
of  Promise,  except  from  afar,  in  punishment 
of  the  momentary  lapse  from  his  wonted 
confidence  in  the  word  of  God. 

How  terrible  is  the  complaint  of  God  in  the 
mouth  of  the  Psalmist,  from  which  the 
prophets  for  six  hundred  years  seem  to  have 
taken  their  key:  "Forty  years  long  was  I 
offended  with  that  generation,  and  I  said: 
These  always  err  in  heart.  And  these  men 
have  not  known  my  ways:  so  I  swore  in  my 
wrath  that  they  shall  not  enter  into  my  rest." 
(Ps.  xciv.  10-11.) 

That  entire  Egyptian  generation  died  in  the 
wilderness,  and  only  the  brawny  children 
raised  in  the  desert  entered  into  the  rest  of 
the  Holy  Land. 

Jesus  Christ  raised  the  standard  of  the 
moral  practice  of  old  to  the  sublimest  heights, 
trusting  man  with  the  ambition  of  the  angels: 
"You  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of 
old:  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery.  But  I 
say  to  you  that  whosoever  shall  look  on  a 
woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath  already  com- 
mitted adultery  with  her  in  his  heart." 
[162] 


(Matt.  v.  27-28.)  "You  have  heard  that 
it  hath  been  said:  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor,  and  hate  thy  enemy.  But  I  say 
to  you,  love  your  enemies:  do  good  to  them 
that  hate  you:  and  pray  for  them  that  per- 
secute and  calumniate  you,  that  you  may  be 
children  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven." 
(Matt.  v.  43-45.) 

Religious  life  had  often  degenerated,  and 
most  alarmingly  at  the  time  of  the  advent  of 
their  Messiah,  into  the  observance  of  mere 
legal  formality;  Christ  Jesus  endowed  it  with 
life  and  substance  from  heaven:  "Not  every- 
one that  saith  to  me:  'Lord,  Lord,'  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven:  but  he 
that  doth  the  will  of  my  Father  who  is  in 
heaven,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  (Matt.  vii.  21.)  "For  from  the 
days  of  your  fathers  you  have  departed  from 
my  ordinances,  and  have  not  kept  them. 
Return  to  me,  and  I  will  return  to  you,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts.  And  you  have  said: 
Wherein  shall  we  return?"  (Mai.  iii.  7.) 

The  intimacy  between  God  and  the  people 
who  would  have  been  swallowed  up  by  the 
other  nations,  had  God  not  taken  them  into 
[163] 


His  bosom,  is  truly  pitiable  for  the  ingratitude 
and  prudery  of  the  Jews.  From  the  first 
prophet  to  this  last,  Malachy,  who  cried  his 
plaint  into  the  New  Testament,  the  reproach 
of  the  ingratitude  of  their  people  is  the  burden 
of  their  strain:  " Behold  I  will  send  you  Elias, 
the  prophet,  before  the  coming  of  the  great 
and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord"  (Mai.  iv.  7.), 
and  then  a  dead  silence  in  the  heavens  for 
hundreds  of  years,  foreshadowing  the  doom  of 
Israel!  "That  great  and  dreadful  day" 
the  first  Good  Friday. 

The  New  Dispensation  brings  Light  and  Joy 

"Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  peace 
to  men  of  good-will."  (Luke  ii.  14.) 

Jesus  Christ  has  raised  the  standard  of 
morality,  (1)  by  the  fulness  and  purity  of  His 
teaching,  (2)  by  the  sanctity  of  His  example, 
(3)  by  the  sublimity  of  His  counsels,  (4)  by 
the  fitness  of  His  laws,  (5)  by  the  promise  of 
His  assistance  through  abundant  grace. 

1.    The  Purity  of  His  Teaching 

(a)   From  a  virgin  mother  He  assumed  the 
flesh,  setting  a  price  on  the  prerogative  of  the 
[164] 


angels  of  God,  and  making  it  a  treasure  for 
the  "  vessels  of  clay." 

(b)  He  never  suffered  the  temptation  of 
the  flesh  to  be  breathed  upon  Himself  by  the 
privileged  tempter  of  the  desert,  Satan. 

(c)  He  lived  a  virgin. 

(d)  He  lavished  more  praise  and  affection 
upon  His  virgin  disciple,  St.  John,  than  upon 
any  other,  allowing  him  to  recline  his  head  on 
His  breast,  at  that  feast  of  the  Most  Sacred 
Mystery  of  His  Love;  and  hence  the  interpre- 
tation by  the  other  disciples  of  His  prophecy : 
"So  I  will  have  him  till  I  come,"  they  think- 
ing "that  that  disciple  should  not  die."     They 
believed  that  the  Master  had  endowed  with 
very  immortality  the  virgin  disciple  who  so 
often  glories  that  "Jesus  loved  him."     What 
proofs   of   affection   the   Master  must   have 
showered   upon    that   loved  one  to  suggest 
such  a  strange  distinction  to  the  minds  of  the 
others ! 

(e)  He  assigns  a  distinct  place  to  the  "pure 
of  heart"  among  the  blessed. 

(f)  His  Apostles  extolled  that   virtue  of 
chastity:  "For  I  would  that  all  men  were 
even  as  myself:  but  everyone  hath  his  proper 

[1651 


n      e 


gift  from  God;  one  after  this  manner,  and 
another  after  that."  (1  Cor.  vii.  7.) 

(g)  The  Fathers  of  the  Church,  the  inter- 
preters of  His  doctrine,  demand  chastity,  that 
fragrance  of  all  earthly  beauty,  as  the  con- 
diment of  all  good  works:  "That  the  purity 
of  chasteness  be  in  the  body,  and  the  light  of 
truth  in  the  works.  For  the  one  cannot  be 
acceptable  to  our  Redeemer  without  the  other: 
if  one  does  the  good,  but  does  not  also  discard 
the  corruption  of  lewdness;  or,  another,  shin- 
ing by  chastity,  does  not  also  perform  good 
works:  therefore,  neither  is  chastity  great 
without  good  works,  nor  is  there  any  work 
good  without  chastity."  (St.  Greg.  P.,  Horn. 
13,  in  Evang.) 

(h)  Hence  the  one  virtue  of  all  acquired 
virtues  most  difficult  to  practise  occupies 
the  place  of  honor  in  the  new  dispensation; 
the  one  virtue  which  lends  luster  and  light  to 
all  the  faculties  of  mortal  man,  and  beauty 
and  fragrance  to  his  words  and  deeds,  is  most 
dearly  cherished  by  the  Master  and  His  Holy 
Spouse,  the  Church. 

The  Jewish  and  the  pagan  world  stood 
aghast  at  the  revelation,  a  ray  of  Para- 
[1661 


dise  still  gleaming  in  the  flesh  unknown  to 
them! 

(i)  From  the  estimate  placed  in  the  doc- 
trine of  Jesus  Christ  upon  this  one  virtue,  we 
must  make  our  deductions  as  to  the  sanctity 
of  the  entire  system. 

2.    The  Sanctity  of  His  Example 

(a)  The  life  of  Jesus  Christ  was  so  abso- 
lutely stainless  that  even  his  bitterest  foes 
passed  His  challenge  unanswered:  "Which  of 
you  shall  convince  me  of  sin?"    (John  viii.  46.) 

(b)  The  Roman  governor,  Pontius  Pilate, 
a  heathen  and  a  profligate,  was  so  much  im- 
pressed by  the  mysterious  majesty  of  Jesus 
Christ  that  he  sought  three  times  to  release 
Him;  but  it  is  only  true  sanctity  that  exerts 
such   overwhelming   power   over   wickedness 
and  injustice. 

(c)  His  first  prayer  on  the  cross  was  a 
petition  for  the  pardon  of  His  executioners 
and  enemies:  "Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do."     (Luke  xxiii.  34.) 
By  this  and  other  proofs  of  His  sanctity  no 
less  than  by  His  patience  amid  the  bitterest 
suffering  he  convinced  another  pagan,  the  cen- 

[167] 


turion,  and  wrung  from  him  the  open  con- 
fession: "Indeed  this  was  the  Son  of  God" 
(Mark  xv.  39),  and  won  the  confidence  of  the 
dying  thief. 

(d)  He  exhausted  all  the  solicitude  of  His 
gentle  heart  ere  he  bade  Judas  go  and  execute 
his  terrible  resolve  of  treason. 

(e)  He  forgave  Peter  his  threefold,  shame- 
ful denial  of  Him. 

(f )  He  enthroned  charity  in  the  souls  of  men 
and  dethroned  selfishness,  enmity  and  revenge. 

(g)  He  asks  of  His  followers  a  charity  like 
to  His  own,  if  they  would  be  His  disciples: 
"Greater  love  than  this  no  man  hath,  that  a 
man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends"  (John 
xv.  13);  "and  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were 
reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  His  Son." 
(Rom  v.  10.)     "By  this  shall  all  men  know 
that  you  are  my  disciples,  if  you  have  love 
one  for  another."     (John  xiii.  35.) 


Chastity,  therefore,  and  charity  are  the 
pillars  which  Jesus  Christ  reared  in  the  tem- 
ple of  the  new  law,  two  columns,  the  orna- 
ment and  the  strength  of  our  faith;  that  our 
hearts  should  be  clean  of  the  rottenness  of 
[1681 


carnal  lust,  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
altars  of  divine  Love. 

Chastity  and  charity!  What  a  hell  of  sin 
and  misery  you  would  banish  from  the  world! 

3.    The  Sublimity  of  His  Counsels 

(a)  "If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  sell  what 
thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou 
shalt    have    treasure    in    heaven:  and   come, 
follow  me"     (Matt.  xix.  21.) 

"Make  thyself  a  stranger  in  this  land  of 
death,  and  thou  shalt  have  a  home  in  the 
mansions  of  my  Father:  forsake  the  earth, 
and  I  will  give  thee  heaven;  empty  thy  heart 
of  the  world,  and  I  will  fill  it  to  overflowing 
with  a  foretaste  of  the  delight  of  the  angels!" 

(b)  "The  disciple  is  not  above  his  master: 
but  everyone  shall  be  perfect,  if  he  be  as  his 
master."     (Luke  vi.  40.) 

Our  Master  is  Jesus  Christ,  "the  splendor 
of  the  Father,"  the  Son  of  God,  the  "Sun  of 
Justice:"  what  a  model  to  imitate,  what  a 
pattern  to  copy! 

(c)  "But  I  say  to  the  unmarried,  and  to 
the  widows:  It  is  good  for  them  if  they  so 
continue,  even  as  I."     (1  Cor.  vii.  8.) 

[1691 


in  tttt  $  Jm&mst  0f 

*  * 


"There  are  eunuchs  who  have  made  them- 
selves eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven: 
who  can  take,  let  him  take"  (it).  (Matt. 
xix.  12.) 

(d)  Innumerable  souls  have  made  super- 
human sacrifice  for  the  love  of  Heaven. 


4.    The  Fitness  of  His  Laws 

(a)  He  reestablished  the  bond  of  matri- 
mony on  its  pristine  basis  of  indissolubility: 
"What,  therefore,  God  hath  joined  together, 
let  no  man  put  asunder."     (Matt.  xix.  6.) 
"Moses,  by  reason  of  the  hardness  of  your 
heart,  permitted  you  to  put  away  your  wives, 
but  from    the    beginning   it    was   not    so." 
(Matt.  xix.  8.) 

(b)  He  set  the  true  value  on  childhood: 
"Suffer  little  children,  and  forbid  them  not 
to  come  to  me:  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
for  such."     (Matt.  xix.  14.) 

The  children's  hearts  are  the  field  for  the 
good  seed  that  bears  fruit  a  hundredfold. 

(c)  He  enjoined  obedience  to  all  authority, 
both   the  human  and  the  divine:  "Render, 

[170] 


therefore,  to  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's, 
and  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's." 
(Matt.  xxii.  21.) 

(d)  He  insists  upon  the  practice  of  char- 
ity throughout  His  teaching  as  upon  the 
one  practice  which  is  the  fulfilment  of  the 
whole  law:  "This  is  my  commandment, 
that  you  love  one  another,  as  I  have  loved 
you."  (John  xv.  12.)  "All  things,  there- 
fore, whatsoever  you  would  that  men  should 
do  to  you,  do  you  also  to  them.  For  this 
is  the  law  and  the  prophets."  (Matt.  vii. 
12.) 

The  first  element  of  the  happiness  of  man 
redeemed,  in  his  sojourn  here  below,  is  the 
spirit  of  sacrifice,  self-denial,  or  mortification. 
To  implant  this  wholesome  spirit  in  our  hearts, 
and  to  quicken  it,  the  Master  made  laws  to 
check  the  ferocity  of  the  flesh,  and  to  elicit  the 
gentleness  of  the  heart.  These  laws  work 
together  unto  the  welfare  of  man  on  earth, 
and  unto  his  salvation,  according  to  promise, 
hereafter;  therefore,  the  law  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  designed  to  stand  as  a  substitute  for  the 
justice  and  integrity  which  we  lost  in  our  first 
parents. 

[171] 


in  H     J^lm&smt  nf 


VIII.   Jesus  Christ  pointed  out  the  Only  Way  to 

True  Happiness  on  Earth,  and  to  Ever- 

lasting Happiness  after  Death 

(A  Reassertion  of  the  Last  Title) 

1.  This  earthly  life  is  not  free  from  suffer- 
ing: the    riddle    submitted    for    solution    to 
every  mortal   is  how  to   be  happy  amid  the 
sufferings  of  this  life. 

2.  This  earthly  life  is  the  palaestra,  the  train- 
ing school  for  the  life  to  come,  the  crucible 
in  which  we  are  to  be  purified,  the  mold  into 
which  we  are  cast  to  be  modeled  unto  per- 
fection.    Hence    the    task  of   every  mortal 
to  submit  gracefully  to  the  process  of  being 
trained. 

3.  We   are   imperfect   in   every   way;  our 
understanding  is  clouded  by  ignorance  and 
dulled  by  lassitude  —  laziness  —  the   will   is 
made  unstable  by  the  looseness  of  its  uprights, 
reason   and    concupiscence;    for   the   will   is 
bedded  between  these  two  powers  like  the 
fly-wheel  on  its  bed:  if  the  foundation  be 
loose,  the  engine  works  unsteadily;  "the  flesh 
lusteth  against  the  spirit,"  and  the  manifold 
passions  and  other  evils  which  the  flesh  in- 

[1721 


herits  by  the  wretched  fall  of  Adam,  increase 
the  confusion  of  the  mind,  misdirect  the  fickle 
will,  and  strengthen  the  power  of  the  animal 
in  man:  "Man  born  of  a  woman,  living  for 
a  short  time,  is  filled  with  many  miseries." 
(Job  xiv.  1.) 

"And  I  proposed  in  my  mind  to  seek  and 
search  out  wisely  concerning  all  things  that 
are  under  the  sun.  This  painful  occupation 
hath  God  given  to  the  children  of  men,  to 
be  exercised  therein."  (Eccles.  i.  13.)  "But 
all  things  are  kept  uncertain  for  the  time  to 
come,  because  all  things  equally  happen  to  the 
just  and  to  the  wicked,  to  the  good  and  to 
the  evil,  to  the  clean  and  to  the  unclean,  to 
him  that  offereth  victims,  and  to  him  that 
despiseth  sacrifices.  As  the  good  is,  so  also 
is  the  sinner:  as  the  perjured,  so  he  also  that 
sweareth  truth. 

"This  is  a  very  great  evil  among  all  things 
that  are  done  under  the  sun  that  the  same 
things  happen  to  all  men:  whereby  also  the 
hearts  of  the  children  of  men  are  filled  with 
evil,  and  with  contempt  while  they  live,  and 
afterward  they  shall  be  brought  down  to  hell. 
...  Go  then,  and  eat  thy  bread  with  joy, 
[173] 


n 


and  drink  thy  wine  with  gladness  :  because  thy 
works  please  God!"  (Ib.  ix.  3,  4-7.) 

What  with  this  wailing  of  this  sage  of  old 
was  there  ever  written  description  more 
graphic  of  the  humming  cauldron  of  mortal 
life! 

The  Master  Himself  did  not  characterize 
the  life  on  earth  as  a  life  without  joy  and 
happiness;  but  neither  did  He  make  promise 
of  earthly  possessions  and  pleasures.  The 
short  span  allotted  to  us  here  below  did  not 
appeal  to  His  solicitude,  except  in  so  far  as 
it  serves  our  higher  end.  He  directed  our 
gaze  heavenward,  and  only  when  He  spoke  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  would  He  deign  to 
associate  the  children  of  the  world  with  the 
children  of  the  kingdom  in  this  warning: 
that  the  children  of  God  would  labor  and 
suffer  for  His  name's  sake,  and  the  children 
of  the  world  for  the  world's  sake,  or  for  their 
own  sakes.  For  when  He  extends  His  invita- 
tion: "If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let 
him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and 
follow  me"  (Matt.  xvi.  24),  He  teaches  that 
the  trials  and  sufferings  of  this  life  are  char- 
acteristic, indeed,  of  the  journey  toward 
[174] 


heaven,  but  still  only  incidental  to  the  spirit- 
ual life  which  He  calls  His  disciples  to  lead. 
He  would,  however,  we  make  little  of  the 
adversities  of  this  world,  as  St.  Paul  explains: 
"For  I  reckon  that  the  sufferings  of  this  time 
are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory 
to  come,  that  shall  be  revealed  in  us."  (Rom. 
viii.  18.) 

As  the  intrepid  warrior  who  fights  for  his 
king  and  country  does,  indeed,  feel  the  heat 
and  hardship  of  the  battle,  but  disregards 
them  in  view  of  the  honor  of  the  victory: 
so  also  must  we  disregard  the  heat  and  the 
burden  of  the  day  for  the  "reward  exceeding 
great." 

Jesus  Christ  would  connect  only  the  eternal 
destiny  of  man  with  his  earthly  discomforts: 
"And  everyone  that  hath  left  house,  or  breth- 
ren, or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother,  or  wife,  or 
children,  or  lands,  for  my  name's  sake,  shall 
receive  an  hundredfold,  and  shall  possess 
life  everlasting."  (Matt.  xix.  29.)"  And  you 
shall  be  hated  by  all  nations  for  my  name's 
sake."  (Matt.  xxiv.  9.)  It  is  a  comfort  to 
know  that  the  Church  of  Christ  is  still  the 
best-hated  institution  on  earth! 
[1751 


i 


Ut 

• 


"If  you  had  been  of  the  world,  the  world 
would  love  its  own:  but  because  you  are  not 
of  the  world,  but  I  have  chosen  you  out  of 
the  world,  therefore  the  world  hateth  you." 
(John  xv.  19.) 

The  Lord  knew  well  that  persecutions  would 
arise,  and  that  those  who  love  Him  best,  must 
suffer  most.  But  He  knew  also  that  His 
true  disciples  would  learn  to  esteem  suffering 
a  blessing,  a  refining  fire,  a  source  of  reward 
rather  than  a  cause  for  wailing  and  complaint. 

And  His  Apostles  understood  it  well: 
"Blessed  is  the  man  that  endureth  tempta- 
tion; for  when  he  hath  been  proved,  he  shall 
receive  the  crown  of  life,  which  God  hath  prom- 
ised to  them  that  love  Him."  (James  i.  12.) 

"Wherein  (in  your  salvation)  you  shall 
greatly  rejoice,  if  now  you  must  be  for  a  little 
time  made  sorrowful  in  divers  temptations: 
that  the  trial  of  your  faith  (much  more  pre- 
cious than  gold  which  is  tried  by  fire)  may  be 
found  unto  praise  and  glory  and  honor  at  the 
appearing  of  Jesus  Christ."  (1  Pet.  i.  7.) 

"Because  thou  sayest:  I  am  rich,  and  made 
wealthy,  and  have  need  of  nothing:  and 
knowest  not  that  thou  art  wretched,  and  mis- 
[1761 


erable  and  poor,  and  blind  and  naked.  I 
counsel  thee  to  buy  of  me  gold,  fire-tried,  that 
thou  mayest  be  made  rich  .  .  .  such  as  I  love, 
I  rebuke  and  chastise.  Be  zealous,  therefore, 
and  do  penance."  (Apoc.  iii.  17-19.) 


Hence  true  Christian  happiness  does  not 
consist  in  the  immunity  from  suffering,  but 
springs  rather  from  the  love  of  God  and  the 
resignation  to  His  holy  will,  which  accounts 
suffering  a  blessing  and  a  mark  of  the  special 
favor  of  God.  Happiness  we  crave  with  all 
the  intension  of  our  nature,  happiness  that 
would  still  our  groaning,  and  enkindle  our 
hearts  with  the  desire  of  showing  our  grati- 
tude to  the  cause  of  our  happiness:  for  our 
happiness  is  only  the  mouth  of  the  love-stream 
surging  about  our  hearts;  the  stream  rises 
without,  from  a  source  so  abundantly  rich  that 
it  shall  never  cease  to  flow  for  us,  unless  we 
allow  its  mouth  to  be  choked,  or  to  freeze 
over. 

Now,  coldness  of  heart  supervenes  either 

upon  the  hopeless  consciousness  of  guilt,  or 

upon  the  silent  conversion  toward  the  things 

of  the  world,  which  engross  the  attention,  and 

[177] 


n 


divert  the  watchfulness  of  the  soul:  "And 
because  iniquity  hath  abounded,  the  charity 
of  many  shall  grow  cold:  but  he  that  shall 
persevere  to  the  end,  he  shall  be  saved." 
(Matt.  xxiv.  12-13.)  "If  any  man  love  the 
world,  the  charity  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him." 
(1  John  ii.  15.)  "But  the  fruit  of  the  spirit 
is  charity,  joy,  peace,  patience,  benignity, 
goodness,  longanimity,  mildness,  faith,  mod- 
esty, continency,  chastity.  Against  such  there 
is  no  law."  (Gal.  v.  22-23.) 

Is  the  possession,  or  even  the  mere  raising 
of  these  fruits  of  the  spirit,  not  the  very  source 
of  true  happiness?  And  it  is  the  Apostle  of 
Jesus  Christ  that  guarantees  their  possession 
through  the  spirit  of  God. 

"Watch  ye,  therefore,  because  you  know  not 
what  hour  your  Lord  will  come."  (Matt. 
xxiv.  42.) 

We  must  account  it  true  profit  that  God  is 
so  solicitous  about  our  purification  from  the 
dross  of  evil  in  the  shape  of  perverse  inclina- 
tions, or  of  sin;  true  happiness  that  He  holds 
out  to  us  from  above  a  reward  so  great  and 
precious  that  the  hope  of  it  warms  the  heart 
and  quickens  the  blood,  filling  us  with  a  joy 
[178] 


that  the  world  knoweth  not;  and  making  us 
not  only  to  bear  adversity  with  equanimity 
and  calmness,  but  with  exultation:  "Now 
all  chastisement  for  the  present  indeed  seemeth 
not  to  bring  with  it  joy,  but  sorrow:  but 
afterward  it  will  yield,  to  them  that  are 
exercised  by  it,  the  most  peaceful  fruit  of  jus- 
tice." (Heb.  xii.  11.) 

This  happiness  is  the  happiness  of  the 
spirit,  the  nobler  part  of  man.  It  differs 
widely  from  the  happiness  of  the  senses,  so 
easily  turned  into  instruments  of  concupis- 
cence. The  worldly-minded  care  not  for  the 
true  happiness,  alone  worthy  of  man's  striving, 
because  they  know  it  not.  They  seek  a 
fleeting  satisfaction  or  delight;  but  this  sets 
the  senses  afire,  inflames  the  heart  with  a 
fever,  and  produces  an  unquenchable  thirst 
and  an  ever-gaping  void. 

The  pleasures  of  the  senses  are  like  a  sore 
on  the  soul:  the  more  one  would  scratch  it 
to  ease  its  itching,  the  more  it  would  itch  and 
induce  new  scratching;  but  there  is  no  healing, 
and  the  end  is  surfeit  or  death:  "For  many 
walk,  of  whom  I  have  told  you  often  (and  now 
tell  you  weeping),  that  they  are  enemies  of 
[179] 


in  tit*  J?lm&imt  ttf  Boiilt 

*  *  * 

the  cross  of  Christ,  whose  end  is  destruction; 
whose  God  is  their  belly  and  whose  glory  is 
their  shame;  who  mind  earthly  things."  (Phil. 
iii.  19.) 

Hence  the  love  of  the  cross  of  Christ  is  by 
no  means  incompatible  with  the  true  happi- 
ness of  the  Christian:  nay,  without  the  love 
of  the  cross  life  often  becomes  unbearable,  as 
the  utter  despondency  of  those  demonstrates 
who  have  drained  the  cup  of  sensuality  to  the 
bitter  dregs  of  disappointment  and  despair. 

(2)  Jesus  Christ  pointed  out  the  way  even 
to  everlasting  happiness  after  death: 

"If  I  shall  go,  and  prepare  a  place  for  you, 
I  will  come  again,  and  I  will  take  you  to  my- 
self; that  where  I  am,  you  also  may  be." 
(John  xiv.  3.)  "Who  will  render  to  every 
man  according  to  his  works;  to  them,  indeed, 
who,  according  to  patience  in  good  work,  seek 
glory  and  honor,  and  incorruption,  eternal 
life."  (Rom.  ii.  6-7.) 

Hence  as  charity  and  chastity  are  the  two 
pillars  erected  in  the  temple  of  Christian  per- 
fection, so  is  patience  the  arch  which  supports 
the  superstructure;  a  humility  ennobled  with 
the  spirit  of  the  cross-bearer  Jesus  Christ. 
[180] 


IX.   Jesus  Christ  is  constituted  the  Judge  of 
the  Living  and  the  Dead 

"And  He  commanded  us  to  preach  to  the 
people,  and  to  testify  that  it  is  He  who  was 
appointed  by  God,  to  be  the  judge  of  the  living 
and  of  the  dead."  (Acts  x.  42.) 

(1)  There  are  those  who  wantonly  disown 
Jesus  Christ,  because  His  doctrine  is  opposed 
to  their  works :  "  Behold  this  child  is  set  for  the 
fall,  and  for  the  resurrection  of  many  in  Israel, 
and  for  a  sign  which  shall  be  contradicted," 
(Luke  ii.  34),  and  disowning  Him,  they  would 
discredit  Him  both  with  themselves  and  with 
the  world:  "And  they  love  the  first  places  at 
feasts,  and  the  first  places  in  the  synagogues, 
and  salutations  in  the  market-places,  and  to 
be  called  by  men,  Rabbi  .  .  .  but  wo  to  you, 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  Hypocrites;  because 
you  shut  the  kingdom  of  heaven  against  men, 
for  you  yourselves  do  not  enter  in;  and  those 
that  are  going  in,  you  suffer  not  to  enter  .  .  . 
you  serpents,  generation  of  vipers,  how  will 
you  flee  from  the  judgment  of  hell?"  (Matt, 
xxiii.  6-7,  13,  33.) 

The  modern  Pharisees,  infidels  from  many 
[181] 


n 


ilj* 


reasons,  scoff  at  the  cross  with  fearsome  aban- 
don, and  the  havoc  they  are  working  among 
the  lowly  and  unsophisticated  is  lamentable 
indeed;  "but  he  that  troubleth  you,  shall 
bear  the  judgment,  whoever  he  be"  (Gal.  v. 
10),  and  "woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
scandal  cometh."  (Matt,  xviii.  7.) 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  man,  therefore,  if 
he  would  escape  the  dreadful  sentence  of 
eternal  damnation,  to  construct  in  his  own 
soul  the  temple  of  God,  to  hasten  the  coming 
of  His  kingdom,  and  to  resist  all  attempts  of 
the  hypocrites  who  would  tear  down  the 
temple  of  God,  and  wrest  the  kingdom  from 
the  Son  of  the  King. 


[182] 


INTRODUCTION 

I.    DISSOLUTION       

II.    THE  IMMATERIALITY  OP  THE  HUMAN  SOUL 

III.  IDEALS 

IV.  SPIRITUAL  DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION 


I.    THE  FOUNDATION         .... 

II.    How  TO  LAY  THE  FOUNDATION 

III.    CANDOR  AND  SINCERITY   .     .    . 


1. 

Jesus  Christ, 

2. 

Jesus  Christ, 

3. 

Jesus  Christ, 

4. 

Jesus  Christ, 

5. 

Jesus  Christ, 

6. 

Jesus  Christ, 

7. 

Jesus  Christ, 

8. 

Jesus  Christ, 

9. 

Jesus  Christ, 

THE  AUTHOR  OF  LIFE 

the  Son  of  God 

the  Brother  of  Man 

the  Redeemer  of  the  World     .     . 

the  Victim  for  Sin 

the  Model  of  Penance     .... 
the  Noah  of  the  New  Testament 
the  Pattern  of  our  Sanctity     .     . 
the  Way  to  Light  and  Happiness 
the  Judge  to  Come 


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